The Veritian Derelict (Junkyard Dogs) (28 page)

"There is one more problem, C
aptain," said Harris, somewhat sheepishly.

"And that is?" asked
Murdock.

"
We have not been able to power up the control systems for the weapon either. Near as we can tell, we're also going to have to manually switch the capacitors back into the system each time we fire a shot. We figure it could take five, maybe ten seconds between shots, as we manually reconfigure the capacitors from charging to discharging when we need to fire."

Murdock gave him a look,
"I could live with that. We're going to have to make this work if we can, Lieutenant, we need those weapons. Take whoever you need and get to it. Make sure everyone knows what they're doing and why. We need to be able to fight this ship!"

"Aye, aye, C
aptain," said Harris, "We'll get right on it."

"Let us know when you're ready for
to test charge the capacitors. I'll make some preparations on this end. Make it so, Lieutenant!"

The
engineering group left the bridge to go back and continue working on the pulse beam system. CPO Allen looked over at Murdock. "If you'll pardon my saying so, cobbling this old ship back together has been a real bitch, Captain."

"Don't worry,
Chief, it'll be worth it. Just you wait and see."

Ten minutes later, Harris poked his head back onto the bridge. "We've switched all but one of the individual
sub-modules out of the charging loop, Captain. We're ready to try charging it up whenever you are."

Murdock called down to the engineering section of the ship, w
here Hawkins was now monitoring the power plant. "Run her up to full power, Angus. We'll have Harris activate the charging circuit as soon as you get it there."

A
low pitched whine and a high frequency vibration increased in intensity until it permeated the entire ship. "Just a mite more...," said Hawkins, over the ship's intercom. "There she be, Lass, tell 'em to start chargin'."

"Lieutenant Harris,
initiate the charging cycle," ordered Murdock.

"Aye aye, Captain!" came the reply.

Two seconds later the lights dimmed, down to an alarming level, before they stabilized and brightened up, though still not to the same level as normal. The whine decreased in pitch until it became more of a growl. Ten seconds later, Harris called over the intercom. "We have a green light on the console! Pull back on the power, Hawk, I think we've got this first module charged."

Murdock gave the order.
Hawkins initiated the transition to a lower power output and the ship's lighting returned to normal levels.

"I think we need to test fire that gun," said
Murdock.

"Will do, C
aptain," said Harris, over the intercom. "Give us a few minutes to get ready. We're gonna need Hawkins up here."

"Let
me know when you're ready, Lieutenant."

Carlisle and Harris waited for about five minutes while Hawkins
made sure the power plant was stabilized at normal output levels and then made his way back to the gun emplacement.

"Hop up in the gunner's chair, Hawk," said Harris. "I'll monitor from down here in the fire control room."

"Aye, Lieutenant. It'll be a pleasure!"

"If I'm reading this right," said Harris, "we
should be able to channel the power through this fire control console, at least for firing the guns. I'm going to set the starboard gun to fire from the number one capacitor module in the starboard capacitor stack. Do these settings look right to you, Ensign?"

Carlisle looked at her wrist comp display and then at the settings on the control panel in front of Harris. "
...module one...switch at one o'clock...charge light on...Yes, Lieutenant, near as I can tell, it's ready to go."

"
I think we have it set right," said Harris. "Fire when ready, Hawk."

Looking at the targeting crosshairs
through the fire control periscope, Hawkins used the manual gun controls that were in ready reach from gunner's chair. He rotated the horizontal crank in a clockwise fashion with his left hand to initiate the clockwise revolution of the turret. He rotated the vertical crank with his right hand to elevate the starboard projector. He picked out a star in the distance and sighted in on it. "Is everybody being ready?" Hearing only assent, he prepared to activate the weapon. "Firin' in three, two, one...fire!"

Though it was especially loud in the turret itself, e
veryone on board the ship was treated to a muted "thwaap" as the pulse beam fired. The engineering group in the turret shouted out in jubilation.

"Starboard pulse weapon successfully fired, C
aptain," Harris announced over the intercom.

"Well done, you
guys!" replied Murdock. "Now see if you can charge up more than one module and we'll take some more test shots."

"Give us a few more minutes, C
aptain," said Harris.

"Whatever you need Lieutenant
. We should still have some time," said Murdock.

"Actually, there is something, Sir," said Harris. "Is there anyone else on board who knows how to operate the power plant? We sure could use Hawkins up here."

"I'm not sure about that...no wait, I do know of someone," said Murdock. "I can do it myself, Lieutenant. Heaven knows, I've done enough of that kind of work. Give me a few minutes to get organized. Chief Allen, you have the con."

Murdock
left the bridge and headed for the engineering section.

The newly-minted gunnery pe
rsonnel stayed in the turret and rehearsed the order of switch activation necessary to sequentially charge the four capacitor sub-modules of the starboard pulse projector. After ten minutes and several dry runs, they thought they were prepared enough for a live run. In the meantime, Murdock announced that she was standing by in the engineering section. Harris looked worriedly at his three companions and shrugged his shoulders.

"Okay, Helen
, er...Captain," said Hawkins, "time to be runnin' up the power."

There was
the now expected, noticeable change in pitch and vibration from the power plant. After five seconds, Harris called out from the fire control console that they could proceed with operations to charge the capacitors. Carlisle, stationed at the aft end of the capacitor bank, threw the switch to initiate the charging of module one while Harris monitored the status of the charge from the fire control console. When the full charge indicator went green, he shouted to Carlisle and Hawkins that it was time to cut in the second sub-module. With the first sub-module almost fully charged, it was possible to leave it hooked into the system for a few seconds to top off the charge while the next module was brought in line. The fully charged module wouldn't draw additional power and, hopefully, the recalcitrant breaker wouldn't kick main power off while, at the same time, with the uncharged sub-module beginning to draw power, the power plant wouldn't be generating power that had nowhere to go. They made the transition smoothly as Hawkins switched in the second module and, a couple of seconds later, Carlisle switched out the first. They then repeated the process for the third and fourth modules.

"Captain Murdock?" said Harris, over the intercom, "This is going pretty well. What say we just keep going and charge up the port side capacitors as well?'

"Charge them up, Lieutenant," replied the Captain. "We'll have to try the port side eventually."

The capacitor switching detail
crossed the aisle over to the port side and smoothly cut the various sub-modules in and out of the charging cycle as needed. This time the procedure required a little over six minutes before Harris called for Murdock to cut back on main power.

"All
eight modules fully charged, Captain," said Harris, still at the fire control console. He frowned. "I make it just under eight minutes for the first bank and about six and a half for the second."

"I thought you
said it would only take about five minutes, Lieutenant?"

"I did,
Captain, but that was just an estimate. We might be able to do it that quickly but we'd have to time all of the switches perfectly and run the power plant up to about a hundred and ten percent. She'll probably handle it, but I don't think it would be wise to risk it unless we haven't any choice. That breaker is just too sensitive."

"I must agree, Lieutenant," said
Murdock. "Good work, you guys!"

"We should
perform some more test firings, Captain, but I'm not sure exactly how to proceed," said Talbot.

"What do you mean,
Frank?" asked Murdock.

Talbot
explained the mixing and matching of sub-modules required to regulate the power of the beam weapons to the Captain.

"What's your pleasure, Lieutenant?"
asked Murdock.

"As old as this machinery is
...," replied Harris, "...I don't know that I'd channel more than two modules at once, Captain. Might be best if we stick with single module pulses, besides, we'll get more shots that way."

"
I agree, Lieutenant," said Murdock. "We take some more test shots using single sub-modules and see what happens. No point in overdoing it."

Harris
manually made the necessary adjustments to the fire control parameters on the engineering console and the
Greyhound's
crew prepared to fire the weapon. As had happened nearly two months before, when they had been working with the
Terrier
and her projectile weapons, Hawkins invited Carlisle to take the gunner's chair to aim and fire the weapon. Just as she had been before, back in the projectile turret of the Terrier, she was delighted to do so.

"Just a minute," said Harris, "We need some kind of target
for you guys to shoot at."

"I've got just the thing," said Talbot. "There are some sighting modules in the control room of the
beam emplacement. They're those canisters strapped to the forward wall. Give me a couple of minutes."

The sighting modules were used to physically
calibrate where the pulses from a beam projector were going. When remotely activated, a sighting module would emit a small, spherical cloud of gas especially engineered to fluoresce brightly when a pulse beam went through it. Gunners used the modules to fine tune the alignment of the projectors. Talbot took a few minutes to load and fire one of the sighting module canisters out of the small air cannon, mounted between the beam projectors, which was specifically designed for this purpose.

Carlisle
slipped eagerly into the gunner's chair and with the same easy skill that she seemed to naturally possess concerning almost any kind of weapon or machine, immediately began to expertly operate the gun controls.

Talbot
, now back in the turret, used the hand-held remote control for the targeting system to cue up a target.

Carlisle smoothly took aim at the small
, red gas cloud using the targeting periscope. She fired off the first pulse beam and was immediately rewarded when the target cloud lit up with a bright yellow-green fluorescent glow that lingered for perhaps ten seconds. She waited for the word that the gun was ready for the next pulse and again fired at the target cloud. She scored four consecutive hits alternating between the starboard and port projectors before almost reluctantly surrendering the gunner's chair to Hawkins. Talbot cued up another target, a blue one this time. Hawkins also fired off four pulses, alternating between the two projectors and, as Carlisle had done, waiting for a prompt between shots. His accuracy was not nearly as good as Carlisle's, though, and he only scored two hits.

The
switching process to swap charged sub-modules for spent ones, however, had gone without a hitch.

"Second test procedure successful, C
aptain," said Harris. "Sorry, Hawk, but it looks like we have a new gunner!"

"That's nay a problem," said Hawkins. "I said I liked firin' the guns, I never said I was any good at it!"

"No more firing," said Murdock. "The moon and those ships are due to come out from behind the planet any minute now and I don't think we should take any chances. They will almost certainly be able to detect pulse weapon fire at this range. There's no need for us to reveal our offensive capabilities. Meantime, we'd better start training more people to run the system. I know we don't have a lot of spare crewmembers but take two or three more, Lieutenant. Do the best you can to get them trained with the short amount of time we have. You never know when we might have to actually fight this ship!"

"Will do, C
aptain," replied Harris. He spoke to his companions in the turret. "You heard the Captain, we're going to have to train a crew to man these capacitors. I'd say we need about four more people per gun and maybe two more as alternates, in case somebody gets hurt."

Harris, Hawkins and Carlisle rounded up a handful of crewmen and, after a half hour or so of explanation,
which included close examination of wristcomp holograms, brought them to the turret and began to drill them on their duties. The capacitor chamber got very crowded when all of the necessary personnel were assembled. The new gun crew went through the switching procedures dry, without power, for over an hour, in an attempt to get everyone up to speed. When the hour of practice expired, the crew, and the alternates, had become at least somewhat proficient in the procedures.