I went back to my cabin, but not to sleep. Damn it! I wasn’t a horny teenager!
By the time I ran into her on the bridge the next day, she was back in control of herself. She gave me a wink and a confident grin. “Don’t worry about leaking that word, Admiral. I wouldn’t want to interfere with a romantic legend.”
I answered her grin with one of my own. “A fat old trader captain thanks you,” I replied formally, bowing. “But if you should meet another Frejan or something, and change your mind, just let me know.” I sobered. “And I’m sorry about touching you. I really wasn’t thinking. I hope you weren’t disgusted.”
Her grin faded. “No,” she replied, “I wasn’t… disgusted.”
Something had happened, though. In a strange way, we were more comfortable around each other, now. Why, there were times when I could talk to her for ten minutes without saying something completely idiotic. I still felt stupid and tongue-tied, but now I seldom had to flee in embarrassment. I began dropping in on the bridge when I knew she had the watch.
A few days later, I had a visit from Shar. “Damn it, Admiral, either bed her or wait ‘til this is over. Having the Admiral showing up at all hours is driving my bridge crew crazy.”
I could feel my face grow hot. “What do you mean? Who?” He merely looked at me with a skeptical expression.
I started to bluster, but could see that it wouldn’t work. Finally, I sighed. “Is it that obvious, Shar?”
He grinned. “The smart money is offering three to two, but the odds are starting to climb because you're so clumsy about it. The only reason they’re as low as they are is because you both obviously want it so much.” He waved a hand to forestall my excited denial. “Val, we’ve been friends a long time. This can’t go on. Please. You have enough to worry about. Put this thing on hold until this is over. Stay off the bridge.”
My face grew warm again. “I’m sorry, Shar. I hadn’t realized I was being such an old fool. I’ll stay away from her, I promise.”
I tried hard to keep my word. I threw myself even more intensely into the details of planning and operations.
Every ship and boat was now equipped with the radio transceivers, and we’d assigned one overall battle frequency and other, separate ones to different commands and forces.
Harpy was back from Outback. Fearless ’ damage had been surveyed, and the news wasn’t good. Her weapons systems could be repaired in fairly short order, as could her life support. However, the jump comp would be a major problem, and would take months to repair. Captain Vidsen had assigned Fearless personnel to replace shortages on Harpy, so Jamro had a full crew, and was spoiling for a fight. He and Bendo of Predator had become fast friends, though they’d only known each other casually on Thaeron.
Chapter XI
We were at a staff meeting, bemoaning, as usual, our lack of firepower, when Sri Bendo said, “I wish you could figure out a way to give us some of those boats, Admiral.”
Jamro shrugged. “You mean those ridiculous armed miners?” he jeered, “Why would you want them? They’d just get in the way. Besides, where would you put them? A destroyer's boat deck is just about big enough for the gig and a couple of launches.”
Bendo snorted. “You haven’t seen them in action. We wouldn’t have had a chance against them if we’d been fighting when we got to Outback system. They were driving our weapons comps nuts, not to mention our gunners. They’d have sliced us to ribbons.”
Jamro looked at Bendo unbelievingly. “If you say so, Sri. As far as I’m concerned they’re no loss.”
Bendo looked at me, grinning. “Admiral, d'you think we could arrange a small demonstration for the unbeliever, here?”
In the end, Jamro took Harpy, with Bendo aboard, out to the asteroid belt, and the attack boats mounted a demonstration attack on a ship-sized asteroid, then a simulated attack on Harpy herself.
Jamro came back an enthusiastic convert. He and Bendo burst into my cabin with Toms Tindarr in tow, demanding that we find a way to give the destroyers boat support despite their lack of jump capability.
“Don’t you think I’ve wanted to do just that?” I replied testily. “But as you pointed out, destroyers don’t have large enough boat decks, and the boats don’t have jump capability. The best we can do is having the destroyers escorted by an armed tramp with a load of boats.”
Jamro opened his mouth to reply, but was interrupted by an unexpected source. “I dunno, Admiral,” Toms Tindarr said, “’Pears t’me t’might be done.”
I suppressed a snort of derision. “All right, Toms, how might it be done? The boats don’t have jump capability, and the destroyers don’t have space to carry them.'
“Weel noo,” he began “th’ boats don’ have jump motors, it’s true. But they do have big ol’ tractor generators. S’pose a dozen ‘r so clamped theyselves onter the hull an’ the destroyer jumped?”
Bendo stared at Toms. “Do you know what would happen if those tractors failed in mid-jump?”
Toms grinned. “Nope. An’ neither does ye, ‘cause ain’ nobody come back fum nullspace! But ye don’ unnerstand. I ain’ sayin’ the boat’s pilot gotta be in the boat durin’ the jump. Ye ain’ got room inside fer the boats, but I’ll bet ye got room fer the pilots.”
“I get it!” I crowed excitedly. “You clamp a dozen or so boats to the hull, and the pilots go inside the hull for jump. As soon as the jump is completed, they climb back out, man their boats, and unclamp!”
Bendo looked doubtful. “Space combat happens quickly. I wouldn’t want to be on the outside of a ship in a suit during a battle.”
Toms snorted. “Yah? Think ‘bout it. Be safer’n bein’ inside ‘thout a suit! Les’n ye was hit direct, ‘course,” he added.
Bendo still looked unconvinced, but Jamro was excited. Eventually, Toms agreed to recruit pilots for an experiment.
A week later, Harpy hung in space near the main jump point for Haven system. I watched from Valkyrie. Three boats were clamped to Harpy ’s hull. Their pilots were sealed in an unpressurized personnel lock. Harpy jumped. She would emerge a short jump away, reverse course, and jump back, simulating an attack. Predator was acting as a guard ship picketing the jump point. When Harpy emerged, alarms would sound, and Predator would go to battle stations.
Who had the advantage, attacker or defender, had been a subject of debate in military circles for centuries. A crew cannot be kept at a constant state of alert. Thus, it takes time for a picket ship to assume battle stations and begin fighting. The attacker, of course, is already at battle stations when he emerges. However, it takes precious moments to spin down his jump engines and light off his inertial drives, which power his shields and weapons. In the meantime, he is vulnerable.
So, several minutes might elapse between the emergence of an attacker and the start of battle. In many cases, the outcome of a battle depended entirely upon who was ready to fight first. There might be enough time for the boat pilots to come out of the airlock and man their boats. That was one of the things this test was to establish.
The wait was nerve-wracking by the time Harpy suddenly appeared and Shar, standing next to me, mashed the button on the timer in his hand. In seconds, the airlock hatch swung open and three tiny figures swung out, and then paused, as they made sure that their magnetic boots were grasping the hull. In a strange slow motion shuffle, they approached the boats still safely clamped to the hull. A few more seconds, and they detached and swung toward Predator. It was almost a minute later that Predator ’s shields went up.
The boats had been in space for more than a minute and a half before the light announcing Predator ’s battle-readiness flashed on and Harpy ’s shields went up almost simultaneously.
Shar and I exchanged glances. If that kind of performance could be repeated, those boats could completely change the face of space warfare.
However, Shar looked at me without enthusiasm. “You know, Val, those boats are fast and incredibly maneuverable, but they’re also pretty damn vulnerable. One hit by just about anything, and they’re gone.”
I nodded, sobering. “I know, Shar. But these pilots are like fighter pilots; the more dangerous something is,
