Dreadnought (19 page)

“I
am told that we actually look far less human than we first did,” she said,
seeming to know what her companion was thinking. “We were also originally less
than half as strong. We evolve in steps about once every ten thousand years.”

Kayendel
opened one of the cases and took out the uniform of a command officer, white
tunic and pants, with cuffs trimmed with a black band, and began dressing
quickly.

“The
Starwolves don’t use a real uniform with emblems of rank?” Tarrel asked.

“Why
should we bother?” Kayendel asked. “Most of us stay aboard the same ship our
entire lives, so we know each other by sight. And yes, we really can tell each
other apart quite easily.”

Captain
Tarrel tried not to laugh. There were indeed only a very limited number of
physical differences between Kelvessan, including size.

“There
are compensations for being Kelvessan, but precious few. Races of artificial
origin do not have much sense of identity, and about all that we have ever been
allowed to do is fight. Perhaps you can understand why we hope very much that
the war does not resume,” she continued, pulling on her boots. “Well, I suppose
that I am ready to present myself to Valthyrra. I have been told that even
Commander Gelrayen has reservations about her adaptation.”

Captain
Tarrel did not comment, recalling how the ship had seemed almost about to panic
with fear and guilt after the misfire of the impulse cannons. She knew that she
might be attaching too much significance to the incident because she did not
think of machines as being given to panic. But she was certain that she would
find it hard to trust a helm officer of her own ship who had behaved in that
manner.

“Main
conversion generators are fully operational,” Valthyrra reported as she began
the process of powering herself up for flight. “Main scanners, shields and
environmental support are all on-line. Main drives are standing by. All systems
ready for flight.”

Commander
Gelrayen had been pacing the bridge, checking the readings on the monitors at
station after station. Everything was actually going very well. The Methryn was
leaving the construction bay a full day ahead of her proposed schedule, in
spite of the problems she had encountered. Her long, tapered nose was fully
plated, and her scanner was as ready as it was going to get, short of full
testing. The Methryn finally had a full crew, although she carried almost no
non-active personnel, and a compliment of ten packs. She had never flown
herself before, but she had done this often enough with other carriers by a
remote link. If she could fly another carrier, it seemed reasonable to expect
that she could fly herself without the slightest difficulty. “Do you feel ready
to go?” Gelrayen asked.

She
brought her camera pod around. “Yes, I feel ready.” He nodded. “Contact bay
control. Tell them to release the braces.”

Captain
Tarrel was watching from the Commander’s station on the upper bridge. Although
a jump seat had already been installed for her, Gelrayen had insisted that he
would not be able to sit through this first flight. Kayendel was at the helm
station on the middle bridge, standing ready at her manual controls if
Valthyrra had any trouble controlling the ship.

“Docking
braces are released,” Valthyrra reported. “The ship is standing free to
maneuver.”

“Back
yourself out of the bay under field drive,” Gelrayen told her. “And be very,
very careful.”

“I
see no reason to worry about my embarrassing myself,” Valthyrra assured him.

Hie
Methryn began to push herself straight back, drifting completely free the
moment her shock bumper slipped away from its docking bracket. The field drive
was a non-reactive drive, so low-powered that it was effective only for
steering the ship and for precise maneuvering in close proximity, such as
moving through dockings. She backed out of the construction bay much farther
than she needed, just to be completely certain of her clearance, then turned
and began to move away. System control granted her consent to free flight, and
she engaged her main drives cautiously to move out of orbit into open space.

“The
ship is clear and away,” Valthyrra reported. “All major navigational systems
are in perfect order. Navigational shields and standard scanners are
functional. Main drives are phasing properly. Acceleration dampers are at high
efficiency. I am ready to begin additional testing.”

“Very
well, then,” Gelrayen agreed. “Begin a series of low-speed tactical maneuvers.
Keep our passengers in mind.”

The
Methryn began her series of rapid turns and dodges, leaving Captain Tarrel
grateful to be strapped into a well-padded seat. Because the Starwolves had
better acceleration dampers, the ride was seldom any worse than it often could
be aboard her own battleship. Union crewmembers wore their own armored suits,
protection against both high G’s and sudden decompressions from a breached
hull. The only difference was that the vast Starwolf carriers made routine
accelerations greater than she cared to consider. The present series was only
moderate, even by her own standards.

Commander
Gelrayen ascended the steps to the upper bridge, ignoring the shifts and jerks
that kept Tarrel pinned to her seat. “Comfortable?”

“I
wish I had my flight suit,” she said. “If these straps break, don’t expect me
to stay in this seat.”

“Our
seats and straps are designed to hold through two thousand G’s more than we can
take ourselves,” he told her. “We will have to build a suit of armor for you,
to give you better protection when the time comes to fight. If you want, we can
put you off for the duration of these tests.”

“Perhaps
you should,” she agreed. “You don’t have much time to complete these tests, and
I get the impression that you’re holding back for my sake.”

Valthyrra
brought her camera pod into the upper bridge. “Actually, I will not be doing
anything more energetic than a basic test of all my mechanical systems. I
hardly see any point in stress-testing my frame and drives, since everything is
new. Besides, I might actually break something, and then where would we be?”

Gelrayen
looked up at her impatiently. “Are you paying attention to what you are
supposed to be doing?”

“Of
course I am. I keep one aspect of awareness on the bridge at all times, but all
the rest of me is very hard at work.” Tarrel looked very confused. “I beg your
pardon?”

The
camera pod moved slightly closer. “My conscious mind has multiple simultaneous
aspects, as well as dozens of subconscious aspects for monitoring the ship’s
automatic functions.”

“How
very convenient,” Tarrel remarked. “Can Starwolves do that also?”

“We
do not have the need,” Gelrayen said. “Besides, our brains are much smaller
than those of a human, and separated into several bony compartments as
protection against accelerations. We have nothing to spare. We do, however,
have a built-in mathematical function that operates independently.”

Valthyrra
rotated her camera pod around to face the main viewscreen. “I register some
fluctuations in the right inboard drive. I am making adjustments in power
distribution until mechanical modifications can be made. Ready to proceed with
highspeed maneuvers.”

“Are
you satisfied with that drive?” Gelrayen asked.

“Yes.
That drive is not a problem; it is just not running as efficiently as I would
like.”

“Then
begin your high-speed tests. Just be prepared to back off that drive if it
gives any trouble.”

“That
drive is not a problem,” Valthyrra repeated in curiously hurt tones.

After
all that this ship had been through in the past couple of weeks, she was
probably becoming a bit defensive about having her abilities questioned.
Captain Tarrel could sympathize, but something about that simple, plaintive
protest led her to suspect that Valthyrra still had some work ahead of her in
developing a complete personality forceful and decisive enough to effectively
command this ship. For the moment, however, Tarrel was distracted from her
thoughts, as the stress of the Methryn’s maneuvers returned, more forceful than
before.

“We
will be climbing to transition under evasive maneuvers,” Gelrayen told her.
“The jump into starflight will be the hardest part, but relatively brief in
duration. That will be the end of it.”

“I
have to get used to it,” she insisted. “I do know one thing. After flying with
Starwolves, I won’t be afraid of childbirth. It can’t be as rough as this.”

Gelrayen
looked mystified. “I had not thought of you as maternal. Were you considering
children?”

“No,
never. So I never had any real reason to be afraid of childbirth. I suppose you
people have your own way of doing that.”

“No,
but I have never heard that it is painful.”

“I
am taking myself on into starflight,” Valthyrra announced, bringing her camera
pod back into the upper bridge. “This ship is behaving so well, I am almost
disappointed with the lack of excitement.”

“I
doubt that,” Gelrayen remarked. “But do what you think best, esteemed one. We
might as well test all of your systems quickly, so that we will have more time
to go back to the bay if something does not work. Signal the other carriers to
prepare themselves for the test of your impulse scanner.”

The
Methryn made the transition into starflight flawlessly and went on to execute
various directional changes, about the only thing she could do in starflight
that was not potentially damaging to the ship. After about an hour of
maneuvering, she was prepared to make a very quick, deep penetration into the
Alkayja system, normally a very aggressive approach. The other carriers that
were in port at that time, at least those which were not presently in the
refitting bays, had moved out into the system on courses of their own choosing
and were running quietly with their shields at stealth intensity. Under other
circumstances, not even another carrier would have known they were there. The
Methryn’s task was to find them, using her scanner, and also discover to what
extent the other ships were able to identify her own location by her impulse
emission traces.

“We
are out of starflight,” Valthyrra announced, as if there was really any need.
“Scanner is at stand-by state. Ready to begin testing.”

Captain
Tarrel watched as best she could, although the Methryn’s sharp deceleration
made that difficult. She was pushing back on the arms of her seat, trying to
relieve some of the crushing pressure that was thrusting her forward into the
straps. A suit with a solid chestplate did a lot to distribute that stress,
which felt worse at the moment than the downward pull. The carrier always kept
her artificial gravity one or two G’s above that of any acceleration, so that
her Starwolves could continue to walk about only by the means of their
tremendous strength and accurate balance.

“Any
time,” Gelrayen told Valthyrra.

He
had returned to the main bridge and was standing behind the surveillance
station, where he could observe the process on the impulse scanner’s own group
of monitors.

“I
will supply a system schematic on the main viewscreen,”

Valthyrra
told the bridge crew. “Beginning a rapid sweep of the full system.”

Tarrel
watched the main monitor, which showed the complete Alkayja system, ships
in-system that registered on normal scan, and a scale of relative distances.
Valthyrra did not have to actually sweep the entire system with a single beam,
but leveled herself with the plane of the planetary orbits and fired a rapid,
low-power achronic pulse with every impulse scanner along her ventral groove.
This should have allowed her to see in every direction at once, with the
greatest range ahead and to the sides. Instead, the scanner schematic slowly
fuzzed completely out.

“Trouble?”
Gelrayen asked, glancing up at her camera pod.

She
rotated around to look at him. “I was completely blinded by scatter. Even the
normal scanners were obscured.”

The
scanner image cleared slowly, then failed again as she tested the impulse
scanners a second time.

“Do
you know the cause?” he asked.

“No,
but the fact that there was scatter from every scanner is an ominous indication
that it is not simple mechanical failure. The problem was a very broad band of
secondary achronic radiation, which blanked out normal and scanner receivers in
a uniform wash of emissions. In other words, I could not see for the glare.”

A
third test gave the same results.

Commander
Gelrayen was obviously displeased. “Do you have any ideas about the cause of
this emission glare?”

“The
first indication is that the emission coils continue to radiate uniformly
across the achronic range for a brief time after the main pulse, which is
emitted along the predicted tight band. This might be an extension of the
problem we experienced in the bay.” Even her camera pod looked bemused. “I
believe that I just invented self-jamming scanners.”

“The
power that holds the coils at stand-by level causes the coils to emit radiation
for a short time?” Gelrayen asked. “Can you predict the amount of time that the
coils will continue this emission?”

“Yes,
the process repeats itself very precisely each time,” Valthyrra said. “I will
try re-writing the firing program to cut power to the scanners for the duration
of that interval.”

“That
was my thought exactly.”

“That
is an imperfect solution, since it closes down the cannon entirely for that
interval,” Valthyrra added. “Ready to repeat testing. This time I will engage
only the main scanner.”

This
gave the same results, if to a lesser degree. It was still enough to leave the
impulse scanner completely useless, and it still blinded the normal scanners.