“I’ve been analyzing the data from the original torpedo. That thing picked us out of the whole Scutum sector. I’m trying to figure out how it did it.”
“That’s exactly what I was coming here to talk to you about. It was almost as if they knew we were here.”
“Exactly, sir. The Vigilant should have appeared like any other spot in space. What could they have homed in on? When we get back, we need to have our ship tested against this new K’Rang sensor we have installed. I’m running diagnostic tests on the ships sensor array to make sure we aren’t emitting some unintentional signal and missing it.”
“Chief, I’d like you, Chief Watson, and me to meet with the captain on this. We need to figure out what gave us away so easily.”
Kelly arranged for all four of them to meet in the ready room. The captain also wanted Chiefs Miller and Billings in on the discussion.
“Exec, this meeting was your idea. Why don’t you start us off?”
“All right, sir. I have concerns with how easily the K’Rang torpedo was able to pick us out of the entire Scutum sector. That torpedo was launched from the K’Rang ship and made a high speed run, just below FTL, through the longitudinal axis of the sector. On its return trip it turned toward us and proceeded to make a weaving path toward us, as if it was constantly refining its bearings as it got closer. If we had stayed where we were, the calculations show, it would have hit us dead on. Now Chief B and I have gone over the sensor logs and the ship logs. We found no signal emitted from the ship. We found no movement of the ship or of the turrets that could have given us away. The K’Rang torpedo shouldn’t have been able to home in on us like that. It was not actively scanning.”
Chief B said, “Sir, I have run a full diagnostic on the ship’s sensors. They are operating better than specs. If there is something giving us away, it’s something the sensors can’t pick up.”
Kelly broke in, “Sir, we’d like to modify one of the probes we have on board to apply the K’Rang sensor suite to it. We’ve checked the inventory. We have enough spare parts on board to rig it up. I’d like to launch that probe and use it to analyze the Vigilant’s signature. We’re going to be out here on patrol for another week; we can schedule it so it doesn’t interfere with our normal patrol duties.”
“Good plan, Exec. Do it when we are in dark space between the star systems.”
“Yes, sir. Chief Miller, would you work with Chief Blankenship to modify a probe? How long do you think it will take?”
“I can have it ready in two days, sir.”
“Chief Billings, when will we be in the dark space exactly between Scutum and Aquila sectors?”
“It should take us about three days.”
The captain stood up. “Okay, let’s aim for running out the probe in three days. Are there any questions? None? Good, back to work.”
Chiefs Blankenship and Miller configured and tested the probe in a day and a half. Chief B fine tuned the data link to increase its data flow to be the sensor equivalent of the Vigilant.
On launch day, Chief Billings confirmed the coordinates, Chief Miller loaded the probe in the launcher, and Chief B confirmed the area was clear of ships and stellar objects. Except for space dust, normal background radiation, and normal gravimetric influences there was nothing for a long way. The captain gave the order and the probe was launched.
The probe set into an increasing spiral around the Vigilant’s horizontal axis. When it reached 10,000 kilometers, it shifted to a decreasing spiral around the vertical axis. This was repeated on the two 45 degree axes between the vertical and horizontal axes. Then the spirals were switched to cover the 22.5 degree axes between.
After all spirals were done the probe was retrieved and stored away. The sensor crew correlated all the data and Chief B displayed the results in the small holographic viewer in the ready room.
Chief B turned down the lights to start the briefing. “I’m going to run through the different spectral bands. First is the visible band. As you can see, the Vigilant has excellent stealth qualities in the visible wavelength. We look like any other black spot in space. As the probe gets closer, you can resolve the outline of the ship, but not pick out any details. As we move into the Ultraviolet bands, we are almost invisible. In the near IR bands we are equally nondescript. Once we move into the far IR, we pick up a small IR signature from the engine exhaust, but only at very close range. If we are greater than 8,000 kilometers away, we are virtually invisible. When we move into the radio and radar bands, we emit no signature whatsoever. We are gravimetrically and magnetically neutral.”
Chief B fiddled with the controls. “It is not until we start looking at the exhaust plume that we see any signature at all.”
The exhaust plume shone in the holographic field like the tail of a comet.
“The exhaust plume of our sub-FTL engine contains ionized particles that trail out behind us like the contrail of an atmospheric flyer. This is what I believe the K’Rang torpedo was homing in on. The sweeping, back and forth movement that it was making was the probe turning back and forth through our exhaust plume. If it had kept going, it would have flown right up our engine exhaust cones.”
The captain folded his hands under his chin, pondered for a moment, and said, “Chief Miller, is there anything we can do to alter our exhaust to make it harder for these things to lock onto us?”
“Well, sir, I’ll need a few days to think about how to do it, but if we could inject something into our exhaust to de-ionize the particles it should throw their sniffer off. I don’t know if we would want to do it all the time or only when we are being sneaky.”
“Chief, think about this and give me some recommendations before we turn back to Antares.”
“Aye aye, sir.”
“Chief B, thank you for your analysis. Don’t change the probe back just yet. I’d like to use it to test some of Chief Miller’s ideas. See if you can program it to home in on our exhaust plume. That’s all, everyone. Thank you. Exec, stick around.”
The others filed out, leaving the captain and Kelly alone. “We’ve got about four days left on this patrol. Work with Chief Miller and Chief B to see what we can come up with to scramble this exhaust homing torpedo. I suspect that the torpedo had a bit more speed than it was displaying. When we went under that lighter and went to power 3, it was gaining on us. Fortunately, it locked onto and took the lighter out rather than us. Review the sensor logs for that particular engagement and see if you can determine how fast that torpedo was going when it hit the lighter. It might come in handy to know that.”
“We did very well. The crew did a great job. Our first real combat and not even a scratch. You’ve done well, Kelly. You have done a great job of making the crew into a cohesive unit. I couldn’t have asked for a better exec. I imagine you’ll do very well. I can see you in your own command some day, in the not so distant future.”
“Thank you, sir. I appreciate the compliment, but you’ve got a good crew and great chiefs.”
“Yeah, I know. I’m recommending awards for you, the chiefs, and the crew for our combat action. Of course, they won’t be as impressive as those from New Alexandria.” The captain and Kelly both broke into loud laughter.
“Come on, Exec, let’s get back to patrolling. The K’Rang may come around to see where their friends went now that the cruisers have moved out.”
The rest of the patrol was uneventful. There was no reaction from the K’Rang side of the frontier. A review of the sensor logs from the battle showed that neither K’Rang ship sent a distress call. The K’Rang may not know what happened to their expedition.
On the way back to Antares, the captain called Chiefs Miller and Blankenship into his ready room. Kelly trailed them.
“So, Chiefs, what have you come up with to mask our exhaust?”
Chief Miller spoke first. “Well, sir, Chief B and I have been working on this. We’ve found a number of compounds that will de-ionize the exhaust. The simplest and most effective method would be to increase the size, and therefore, the capacity of the existing electron guns. The electrons will bond with the ions and eliminate their charge with no loss of thrust. That leaves no charged exhaust trail to follow.”
The captain jumped up. “Great, do we have what we need to do that on board?”
Chief Miller had an unhappy look on his face. “No, sir, I’ve searched the whole ship and we don’t have the parts to do that. It will have to be done in a shipyard.”
