Midshipman Henry Gallant in Space Page 18

CHAPTER 9

  ENEMY SCOUT

  Over the next few weeks, along with his fellow midshipmen in Fighter Squadron 111, Gallant developed his advanced fighter pilot skills. In addition, he studied and trained to qualify as Officer of the Deck. And all the while, Chief Howard guided him to meet his responsibilities as Communication Division Leader.

  During his studies of the squadron’s Eagle fighter, he learned about the latest antimatter engines. They shot antiprotons into the nucleus of uranium atoms, which caused a release of energy that broke the nucleus apart just like the fission process in a conventional nuclear reactor. However, even a small number of antiproton reactions could start a chain reaction that would otherwise have required a much larger mass of uranium to sustain. With antimatter catalyzed reactions, only one gram of uranium was required along with a microscopic amount of antiprotons. However, the antiprotons had to be kept isolated in plasma bottles surrounded by powerful magnets coils.

  Gallant enjoyed flying stunts in his Eagle in order to get a feel for its capabilities. He found the engines capable of great acceleration. They could reach 0.01c and maintain it for ten hours before powering back to cruising speed of 0.004c. They were even capable of long independent trips of several weeks under reduced environmental conditions. As a pilot, he wore a pressure suit for normal ops and a shielded armor suit in combat. During target practice Gallant fired the high energy pulsed lasers and antimissiles. Using the neuron headgear, he was able to interface with the fighter’s weak AI computer when in range with GridScape.

  A critically limiting aspect of the neuron headgear was that it required young pliable minds to effectively fine-tune to the synaptic interface. Each pilot was trained to concentrate his mental energy into a meticulous focus and hold that attention for a protracted period. Consequently, pilots were ‘burned-out’ within a few years, requiring them to be reassigned. However, this synergetic neuron relationship between pilot, fighter and GridScape, allowed close coordination of maneuvers and weapon systems producing a highly effect weapon's platform.

  For Gallant, the demands of the neuron headgear were particularly onerous. He often suffered migraine headaches after long and difficult training sessions. But he kept his pain to himself and none of his shipmates noticed his problem. By meeting his qualification schedule and online test requirements, the XO and other senior officers were placated. Gallant didn’t let on about the toll this was taking on him.

  One day, Gallant was deployed in a fighter screen covering Repulse with Kelsey as his astrogator. Red was flight leader of Flight 4 with Gallant as his wingman.

  “Flight 4, take the anchor position,” ordered the OOD on Repulse.

  “Roger,” responded Red. Then he switched channels to talk to Gallant, “OK Henry, guide on me.”

  “Click...click,” Gallant tapped his microphone in response.

  The pair of fighters was on the sun-side flank of the fighter screen. They were acting as the anchor node in the unit’s radar lattice. The rest of the dozen Squadron 111 fighters were positioned at other points in the lattice structure. The radar lattice served to extend a single ship’s radar range by collecting the signals from multiple nodes and integrating the results. It produced a collective image that included objects that would otherwise be hidden within a planet’s, or moon’s, shadow.

  The lattice radar allowed the fleet to see greater details of the Solar System’s eight planets and their many varied moons. The inner terrestrial planets were primarily rock and metal, while the outer gas giants were more massive with many moons. Jupiter and Saturn were composed primarily of hydrogen and helium, while Uranus and Neptune were composed largely of ice, ammonia, and methane. As a result, each object created a different complication for the radar to analyze.

  When Gallant reached his designated position, the lattice radar swept an area of space around Jupiter that had not previously been exposed.

  Repulse reported, “We’re picking up a new contact. Designate it as Alpha 23. It is located just behind the horizon of Europa.”

  The United Planets maintained the Jupiter refueling station in orbit around Ganymede, which in turn was in orbit around Jupiter at a distance of one million miles. Of Jupiter's sixty-six moons, Ganymede was the most massive, even larger than Mercury. On the surface of Ganymede, UP also had a research laboratory, which included an accelerator for the production of antiprotons. Together these bases were UPs furthest assets away from Earth. It was Repulse’s mission to guard them.

  Europa was in a closer Jupiter orbit, approximately 226,000 miles. It was at the edge of the planet’s horizon at the moment. As a result, Repulse and its fighter screen were about a million miles away from Alpha 23.

  Repulse ordered, “Flight 4 investigate the bogy. Flight 3, extend your flight trajectory to provide support as required.”

  “Aye, aye, sir,” replied Red.

  Gallant accelerated after Red toward Alpha 23. He quickly reached the maximum velocity of 0.01c, or 1860 miles a second. This was five times Repulse’s maximum velocity.

  Red used standard UP references to identify the location and flight path of the target. This established the observer’s ship as the reference point and set the bearing, azimuth, velocity, course, and time. The relative bearing from other ships to the bogey was taken from this standard. The direct line of sight from the reference ship to the sun was set as 000 degrees. The bearing directly away from the sun was set as 180 degrees. The plane that the reference ship had formed as it orbited the sun was set as zero degrees azimuth. Anything above this plane was a positive angle and anything below this plane was designated as negative, or down, angle. The velocity and time were also taken relative to the reference ship and the course calculated accordingly.

  Soon Red was able to report the location and flight path of the bogey as, “Alpha 23, bearing 168 degrees, azimuth up 010 degrees, velocity 0.001c, course 180, time 1434.”

  Because every other ship was tracking Red’s position, they were able to take his sighting and using dead reckoning they plotted Alpha 23’s data to their relative position.

  Flight 3, consisting of Neumann and Chui, positioned themselves between Flight 4 and Repulse so that they would ready to scramble to support either.

  Flight 4 changed course to intercept the target. Normally, ships used the most fuel-efficient means to move from one circular orbit to another, known as a Hohmann transfer orbit. This required that the spacecraft began in a roughly circular orbit around the sun, or planet. Then it used a thrust in the direction of motion to accelerate or decelerate the spacecraft into an elliptical orbit. The spacecraft fell freely along this orbit until it reached its destination. In this case, Red chose expediency over efficiency and maneuvered aggressively to intercept the target.

  After about four minutes, Flight 4 was approaching Europa. They concentrated on identifying the target’s features. It began to look more and more like an alien ship.

  Red reported to Repulse, “Alpha 23 appears to be a small Titan ship, destroyer size.”

  The Titan destroyer was about 280 feet long. That was one seventh the length of the Repulse, but six times as long as an Eagle. It had an overall saucer shaper with a large dome center section. Missile tube and plasma cannon openings were apparent on its surface as well as radar and telescope obstructions. This ship was typical of what the UP had encountered to date, though some larger cruiser size ships had also been reported.

  Two years earlier, a UP survey ship had made first contact with an alien in orbit around Saturn’s moon Titan. The alien refused to communicate. UP began to refer to the aliens as Titans and the nickname stuck. Unmanned exploration satellites launched from the Jupiter Station had revealed that there was an alien presence on the moons of Saturn and Neptune. It wasn’t known if the aliens were native to the Solar System or visitors from another star that had begun colonizing the outer planets, though the latter case was highly suspected.

  “Flight 4 close on the target. Repulse will maneuver to support you
,” the order came over the intercom.

  “Roger,” acknowledged Red.

  But the aliens had other ideas. Apparently, their radar range was more limited, but they finally realized that they had been discovered and were beginning to accelerate into a higher orbit to escape.

  Gallant launched his weapon’s virtual screen and armed his pulse lasers and Mongoose antimissiles.

  "Unidentified ship, this is United Planets’ Jupiter Fleet. We request that you identify yourself and state your purpose," was broadcast from Repulse several more times as they tried to communicate with the unresponsive alien.

  Instead of replying, the alien fired a plasma blast toward Flight 4 at a distance of about 0.5 light-seconds, or 93,000 miles distance.

  Gallant sucked in his breath awaiting the explosion. He loosened his grip on the manual controls of the fighter as he reached out with his mind to tighten his mental control. He adjusted the throttle settling and positioned the thrusters. When the Titan’s plasma blast came, it missed wide and dissipated before it reached the fighters. He recorded the radiated signals thrown off by the alien and its blast.

  Gallant thought, this isn’t like mock combat, these weapons are live. He said over his flight communicator, “Red, I don’t think that shot was meant to hit us. It could have been just a warning shot.”

  Red responded, “Probably true.” Even though Flight 4 wasn’t authorized to return fire, and he hadn’t requested it, Red sharpened his course and increased speed directly toward the target.

  Gallant sensed the adjustments of Red’s Eagle and guided his ship to remain in the wing position. The encounter was turning deadly. He was becoming anxious about his responsibilities and especially for his astrogator, Kelsey.

  They were closing the distance to the Titan craft, but a new order interrupted them, "Do not pursue. Break contact and return to Repulse."

  Red bit back a curse, but changed course to return to Repulse. They monitored the Titan traveling away. Soon it moved out of Jupiter's orbit and set a course toward the outer planets.

  Gallant was glad to return after such an extended and exhausting mission. His neuron headset was bathed in perspiration and he had a throbbing headache. He could hardly wait to complete debriefing and get to his bunk to rest. As he lay down, he wondered about the alien. It must have been a scout keeping an eye on the UP base. He considered the alien’s maneuvers and actions sharp and professional. It fitted the role of a scout ship meant to collect information and defend itself, but not provoke unnecessary hostilities. The fact that the aliens refused to communicate troubled him, but he was sure of one thing - they would be back.