“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 highspeed 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.”
