The Veritian Derelict (Junkyard Dogs) (34 page)

"Where are you going to attach to it and winch it out?"

"You'll note that the tube with the cable in it actually runs through the upper part of the central cargo hold on the bottom of the ship. We can cut out a section of the tube, grab on to the cable and winch it out from that point. When we're done, we should have about fifty meters of free cable to work with and it will be routed to the outside from the central cargo hold. In the meantime we'll also have to get the gun emplacements on the wrecked cruisers prepared so we can connect the cable to them."

"That shouldn't be too bad," said Jenkins. "There's a junction between the main power cable
s and the pulse beam capacitors for each of the gun emplacements. The Federation used a standard male-female type of connector for the power junctions. It shouldn't be too hard to disconnect the gun emplacements from the electrical systems of the ships they're mounted on. We'll just need to unplug them. Then we'll need to rig one of the standard male connectors to our charging cable." He paused here before continuing. "I won't try to downplay this, we have a lot of work to do to pull this off. Do you have any people you can spare, Mr. Ambassador?"

"Of course," replied the Ambassador, "
Raghib?"

"
All of my men are at your disposal, Commander," said the engineer. "I am also available myself and humbly suggest that I am probably the best person to head up the modifications to the
Istanbul
."

"What do you think, Mr. Ambassador?" asked Kresge.

"I say we'd better get started," replied the Ambassador.

Several crews were assembled and
work on the Scrapyard arming project began immediately. Raghib headed up the team that was assigned the task of attaching the port cable to the power plant of the
Istanbul
and pulling the cable out of its dedicated tube. Members of his crew went through the ship, evicting the affected patrons from their various rooms so that they could secure the hatches and ensure that all personnel remained safe if any of the affected compartments should wind up in vacuum during the rerouting of the cable. The engineers did not expect any depressurization but they were taking no chances.

In the meantime, Jenkins headed up the crew working on the Federation side of the
project. His crew disconnected the power cables from the capacitor banks of each of the gun emplacements that they thought they could use and routed them to the outside of their respective ships, where the connections could be accessed by the
Istanbul
. With very little time to prepare for the coming battle, the Scrapyard defense team decided that if they didn't have easy access to the inside of the wreck through some kind of battle damage, they weren't going to try to use the gun emplacement.

For the
Istanbul
herself, they rigged the port main battery cable, the so called "charging cable" which, as estimated, ended up being about fifty meters long, with the Federation-style male connector so that they could readily connect to the prepared cables rigged on the various gun turrets.

A sense of urgency permeated the entire project.

Chapter 48.

UTFN Auxiliary Ship
Greyhound,
near the Whitney Jump point of the New-Ceylon, Naccobus star system, December 12, 2598
.

The
Greyhound
phased smoothly back into normal space in the Whitney hyperlink point for the New Ceylon system. Harris used the
Greyhound's
stage I communicator to contact the Scrapyard.

"Federation
Auxiliary Vessel
Greyhound
calling the New Ceylon Reclamation Center."

He received a reply
on the viewscreen almost immediately.

"
Istanbul
here, this is Captain Nassar. Welcome back
Greyhound.
We saw a ship come through the hyperlink point and we were hoping it was you. The Commander is not here right at the moment but I have sent for him. He will be very happy to see you!"

"Nassar, thank God!" said Harris. "
I can't tell you how good it feels to see a friendly face! We've just barely escaped from the Heard's World system. We've a lot to report."

"Much has been happening here while you have been gone as well. Ah. Here is the Commander."

"Harris," said Kresge, who couldn't suppress a relieved grin. "You guys made it! We've been worried sick! What's the situation at Heard's World? Is everyone okay? Did you find Caleb and Hanna Jordan?"

"
We ran into two hostile ships in that system Commander," replied Harris, "under the command of someone who calls himself the Sheik of Barsoom."

"
You have information on the Sheik of Barsoom?"

"
He's a real person, Commander, Hanna and Caleb Jordan met him face to face! They can tell you more about it when we get back to the Scrapyard."

"What about the ships?" asked Kresge.

"One of the ships was the Sheik's personal yacht but the other one was a
Dagger
class destroyer. The rumors about a hijacked destroyer were true, Commander, this Sheik and his men killed the Tunisian crew and commandeered the ship while it was at the Piedmont Mining Station but not before the former crew members managed to disable all the beam weapons."

"Three ships from Catskill-Soroyan just joined us yesterday, Lieutenant. They actually witnessed the
hijacking! We were wondering what happened to that destroyer."

"
The Sheik's forces somehow found out about the Veritian wreck in the Heard's World system and went there to get parts for their damaged weapons," said Harris. "They needed a weapons tech so they kidnapped the Jordans and forced Caleb to help them repair the main batteries."

"
So they have been able to restore the main batteries?"

"I'm afraid so," said Harris.

"That damned Veritian Derelict has sure as hell been no end of trouble for us out here, hasn't it?" said Kresge. "First it was two armed cargo ships and now this destroyer!"

"Don't forget the nuclear self-destruct they threatened us with on the orbital station," said Harris.

"Don't remind me," replied Kresge.

"I
pulled the quantum drive out of the bridge computer on the wreck, Commander," said Carlisle. "I'll try to access it if I can get some time. Maybe we can get answers to some of the mysteries surrounding that ship."

"Good thinking, Ensign," replied Kresge.

"There's more, Commander," said Harris, "a lot more, but we finally got our beam weapons to work, managed to rescue the Jordans and just barely held that destroyer off long enough to make it to the jump point. We were damned lucky to get out alive!"

"I'll want a full report when you get here, Lieutenant."

"One more thing, Commander. Hanna overheard some of them while she was being held captive on the yacht and it sounded like they were waiting for more ships to rendezvous with them. It looks like they could be on their way to this system next!"

"We have arrived at the same conclusion,
Greyhound
," replied Nassar. "As I said, much has happened while you have been gone. The ships from the Catskill-Saroyan system brought information indicating that an attack on this system is imminent. We have been making preparations. The Ambassador will be greatly relieved that you have returned. I have no doubt that your talents will be appreciated, we are in the midst of a large project at this very moment."

"Nassar is absolutely right, Lieutenant
," said Kresge. "We need you as soon as you can get here."

"We're on our way, Commander."

***

The
Greyhound
maneuvered her way into the Scrapyard some four hours later. The crew met with an overjoyed Kresge shortly after. The commander asked for and received a full accounting of all their activities. After relating a more detailed account of events in the Heard's World system, the
Greyhound's
crew was, in turn, briefed about the
Istanbul
arming project. The arrival of several additional qualified engineers, those recently returned with the
Greyhound
, meant that the work could be completed a little more quickly. Harris, Hawkins, Carlisle and Talbot were immediately put to work on the project.

Later in the day
, with all of the connections finally prepared, the ones on board the
Istanbul
and all of those out in the cloud of wrecked ships, the time had come to put the Scrapyard arming plan into action. The process of charging the various emplacements turned out to be far more tedious and time consuming than expected, as a great deal of precise and difficult maneuvering was required to get the big diplomatic ship into position close enough to connect to the various beam emplacements. "Close" being the operative word as a distance of less than fifty meters between the
Istanbul
and the wrecks of similar sized ships was required to make the weapons connections. This represented an operating distance between very large ships that was far closer than most of their personnel had ever attempted by several orders of magnitude. The Scrapyard workers, returned with the
Greyhound
, and their experience working with big ships at close quarters was most welcome.

For the very
delicate maneuvers required to align the
Istanbul
with the assortment of wrecks containing emplacements that were to be charged, the Scrapyard Defenders utilized the
Rover I
with Harris, their most experienced operator, at the controls. The
Rover II,
piloted by Carlisle, was put into service to handle the terminal end of the cable and to perform the even more delicate maneuvers necessary for making the final connections. The magnetic grapplers on the
Rover II
proved invaluable to this part of the charging operation. Once the charging cable had been connected, a small but knowledgeable crew was needed to man the weapons control console and monitor the progress of the charging procedure.

The
modern and somewhat underworked power plant of the
Istanbul
, originally intended for just such duty, had the potential to charge the capacitors for the main batteries on the old cruisers very quickly, a time normally measured in seconds. Because of the unknown and untested condition of the old emplacements and the makeshift connections, Kresge ordered the teams to proceed deliberately and carefully, to avoid overloading and damaging any of the ancient components on the various wrecks or, God forbid, on the
Istanbul
herself and potentially injuring some of their own personnel in the process.

The Scrapyard defense team
had rigged charging pigtails on six double-projector turrets representing the main batteries on five of the old cruisers. Because of all the ship and utility sled maneuvers required and the necessary safety protocols, the time required to make the connections and the time required to carefully charge the capacitor banks, the teams discovered that two to two-and-a-half hours were required to charge each of the gun emplacements.

After they had finished with
the emplacements on one of the chosen wrecks, the
Istanbul
herself needed to be repositioned, a procedure that required the utmost care due to the size of the diplomatic ship and the close confines of the Scrapyard. It was a little over a day before all of the emplacements they had picked out were charged and ready to fire. It was hard, demanding and tedious work, requiring some very delicate maneuvers involving a rather large ship.

When they had
finally charged up all of the chosen weapons, Talbot had the inspiration to suggest that they leave the
Istanbul
connected to the
Ajax
, the last of the cruiser wrecks that they would be charging guns on, and one that was located in a cluster of five other cruisers that looked like a perfect hiding place for the
Istanbul
. As the only
Houston
Class cruiser in the Scrapyard, the
Ajax
was among the most advanced designs in the entire Scrapyard inventory. The ship not only had the most powerful weapons of any of the cruisers available, she also had two functioning twin-mount main batteries, one fore and one aft, for a total of four guns. It had taken some extra time to rig a "Y" connector within the wreck so both emplacements could be charged simultaneously but, unlike the other emplacements they had charged up, these could be fired and recharged as long as the cable and the beam emplacements themselves remained intact. By tweaking the settings on the
Istanbul's
shields, they were able to extend her shield envelope enough to provide partial protection for both of the emplacements. The extra firepower gained by this arrangement was deemed to be well worth the time invested.

Th
e final placement that the defenders chose for the
Istanbul,
relative to the
Ajax,
had the added advantage of partially shielding the
Istanbul
with the
Ajax
, within a row of several other cruiser wrecks, thus providing a modicum of extra protection, at least from some firing angles. The other gun emplacements, scattered at various locations throughout the wreckage cloud, would only be capable of firing a single pulse per gun but that did give the defenders the capacity to fire eight single pulses from the remote emplacements and multiple pulses from the turrets that the
Istanbul
remained attached to.

Due to the stationary nature of all of the
ships with charged emplacements, there would only be a limited zone of fire available to any of the guns, so the defenders would either have to wait until the enemy wandered into the kill zone or figure out some way to lure them into it. The fact that none of the remote emplacements would be protected by powered shields meant that a single impact, even from the main battery of a destroyer, would likely be enough to neutralize any of the weapons that were hit. On the other hand, all of the weapons they had charged up were thought to be at least twice as powerful as anything that the enemy was known to possess. Each pulse fired had the potential to heavily stress the shields and possibly even cause major damage to any enemy ship they could manage to hit with it. While still far from an ideal situation, at least the
Istanbul
and the scrapyard defenders had the means to put up a fight.

I
t was very much looking as though they would have to.

Every bit as important, t
he
Istanbul
could still run if the situation turned really bad…