“What does the Last Stand use?”
The weapons officer's expression twitched slightly, which may as well have been an enthusiastic grin. “We use a high rate of fire, single-burst laser array with a hairpin swivel mount that allows for minute, very accurate aiming adjustments. That allows us, or I guess me, to pinpoint enemy systems once their shields are down. We also have a less accurate, three-burst laser array to punch through their shields. We don't currently have a launcher for atomics, but do occasionally use them in other ways, such as the mine we planted in the Fleetfoot's path during the battle where we rescued you.”
“Is that it?” Lana asked.
“Not in the slightest.” His fingers flew across his station for less than a second, bringing up the image and details of a weapon. “Projectile weapon, one of the oldest weapon types known to man, when our ancient ancestors literally picked up rocks off the ground and threw them to injure prey or predators. Or each other, I guess.”
She frowned at the image; it had a lot of technical details she could barely even begin to grasp, but it certainly didn't look primitive. “The Last Stand throws rocks?”
“Effectively, if you consider the rocks to be slugs of hyper-dense conductive material the size of your fist, propelled by a powerful electromagnetic field to ten times the top sublight speed of a starship during combat maneuvers.” Dax moved from the descriptive page to a holographic video of the weapon firing in slow motion, then at normal speed; she could barely even see the slugs moving the second time, although the weapon was firing at least a few times a second.
Then he showed what it looked like when the weapon hit a target, in this case, a small asteroid, and what was left of it afterwards.
“The slang term for this type of projectile weapon for tens of thousands of years has been “railgun,” he continued. “It's much harder to hit a target with it than with a laser, but you can pump out a steady stream of slugs, and one or at most two hits in quick succession will overload a layer of shielding. Meaning if you can manage to stay on target, you have a better chance of chewing through their shields.”
The young man pulled up what took Lana a few seconds to realize must be a recording of one of the Last Stand's previous battles, as small pinpoints along the shields of a ship winked brilliantly as it was slammed by a steady barrage of slugs. Then the shields winked out and the slugs chewed right into the ship, accompanied by venting air and even explosions.
She shuddered, looking away and trying not to think of what it would be like if that was happening to this ship while she was on it. “The railgun must be a pretty popular weapon, then,” she observed.
“Not so much, actually,” Dax replied, not seeming to notice her discomfort in his enthusiasm for the subject. “Most people avoid them, since they're so much harder to hit the target with than lasers or smart missiles. They also require a great deal of heavy and expensive ammunition, which will quickly be depleted in a battle no matter how much of it you stock. In the meantime you have to carry it around on your ship, increasing fuel costs and making acceleration and maneuvering sluggish. Not by a significant amount, mind you, but in battle, the margin between victory and defeat can be pretty narrow.”
The weapons officer paused, as if at that moment trying to figure out a solution to the problem, before glancing at her and hastily continuing. “But for all the downsides of railguns, the upside that makes ours worth it is the comparatively minor power usage. Meaning we can focus power on our defensive systems while we pepper the enemy ship with slugs to chew through their shields, then use the single-burst laser array to snipe their systems and end the battle. It means once we run out of slugs the fight becomes much more difficult, but at least they're not too hard to replace. We can even fabricate them from debris or asteroids of the right composition if we need to.”
“So the railgun is the key to your success in all the fights you've been in?” Lana asked, as much to interrupt the endless bewildering flow of words as because she was curious.
Dax hesitated. “As instrumental as any other weapon for the purpose would be, given the proper tactics and utilization,” he said carefully.
She stared at him. “Um, what?”
“He's trying to tell you the truth without sounding like he's bragging,” Ali said from behind them.
Lana jumped slightly and turned to look at the companion, who was standing in the doorway to the bridge smiling at Dax. She looked almost . . . fond. “Bragging about what?”
Ali arched an eyebrow at the young man, who spoke up with obvious reluctance, although his tone remained neutral. “From a tactical standpoint, a ship's success in battle is most reliant on two crew members . . . the pilot and gunner. Or gunners, I suppose, since the Last Stand could potentially make use of three for our three weapons, although I've always been sufficient to the task. A terrible gunner means the enemy ship doesn't get hit. A terrible pilot means your ship is hit with enough fire to burn through the shields and begin destroying systems and causing hull breaches, eventually getting blown to the void.”
He hesitated, until Lana finished for him. “And a brilliant gunner and pilot mean you
