Scimitar's Glory: Swordships Odyssey, #1

Cast of Characters (and rank as they first appear):

Carson (Angela) – Manager of General ElectroDynamics Corp. R&D base

Corrigan – Admiral and Chief of Space Operations for TOSF

Cortez (Hector) – Commander, Heavy cruiser Coral Sea

Dejanus (Tyler) – Commander, Light cruiser Excalibur

Koenig (Wolfe) – Executive Officer (XO) Light cruiser Excalibur

Molitor (Jake) – Commander, Support ship Reforger

Nakatomi – Commander, Light cruiser Durendal

Rostov – Admiral, 7th Fleet

Soriya (Eriko) – Senior Lieutenant, 3rd Officer, Light cruiser Excalibur

Steiner (Gregor) – Commander, Heavy cruiser Valley Forge

Torriega – Commander, Light cruiser Curtana

Truman (Marcus) – Commander, Super-heavy cruiser Corregidor

Tulagi (Jean) – Executive Officer, Super-heavy cruiser Scimitar

Glossary of Terms:

AstroComp – Computer programmed specifically for astrogational computations.

BDO – Bridge Duty Officer

ComComp – Computer programmed specifically for communications computations.

ECM – Electronic Countermeasures (used to jam/spoof or negate enemy radar)

EngSysComp – Computer programmed specifically to monitor engineering systems.

EVA – Extra-Vehicular Activity

Graser – short form for Gamma Ray Laser

MOE – Margin of Error

OAE – Optical Alignment Error

TacComp – Computer programmed for tactical computations.

TOSF – Treaty Organization Space Force

UETO – United Earth Treaty Organization

List of Ships:

Super-heavy cruisers :

Coral Sea

Corregidor

Scimitar (one of the swordships)

Heavy cruisers:

Ardennes

Barent’s Sea

Dogger Bank

Jutland

Kursk

Leyte Gulf

Lexington

Saratoga

Tassafaronga

Valley Forge

Yorktown

Light cruisers:

Javelin Class:

Javelin

Excalibur (one of the swordships)

Durendal (one of the swordships)

Curtana (one of the swordships)

Tizona (one of the swordships)

Sting (one of the swordships)

Other LC Class ships:

Trafalgar

Gavutu

SUPPORT SHIPS:

Reforger

Redeemer

Replenisher

Background information on the Swordships Odyssey universe:

Interstellar travel is based on jumps through hyperspace. Once a ship is in hyperspace, it will continue indefinitely until it bumps into a region where the fabric of space is stretched due to the gravity of a nearby star or, if large enough, potentially a planet . The distances that can be safely traversed in a single hyperjump are limited by how accurately a starship can aim itself at the gravity well of its destination star. The further away the destination star, the more difficult it becomes to hit its gravity well. Therefore, travelling over a long distance has to consist of a series of short hyperjumps, and after each one, the starship must travel around the star to get to the other side of the gravity well. Ships need to reach speeds of at least 15,000 kilometers per second before they can slip into hyperspace and only then if they are far enough away from the center of a star-generated gravity well: 508 million kilometers from a star the size of Earth’s sun.

Some regions of space have voids, the traversing of which is only possible when there are isolated star systems that can form a chain of shorter jumps in order to create a bridge.

The United Earth Treaty Organization (UETO) has primary responsibility for monitoring, supervising and safeguarding all extra-terrestrial colonies, stations and shipping. Its enforcement arm is the TOSF (Treaty Organization Space Force)

Commercial starships can accelerate in normal space at rates of up to 987Gs. TOSF ships can accelerate at 1597Gs. Missiles are long range weapons that can accelerate at 4,181Gs. Gamma ray lasers (grasers) are short range weapons capable of penetrating even thick hull armor.

The TOSF has made contact with two alien races on opposite sides of explored space. The Jabs are a race that has only recently achieved star travel. Their space is across a void that has three known bridges. They have asked for technical and military equipment assistance to defend themselves against another race on the opposite side from the UETO. The TOSF has transferred warships containing old technology to the Jabs who have secretly improved the technology and built a large fleet.

On the opposite side of human space are the Tongs, who are openly aggressive with a militaristic culture that glorifies battle. They are currently believed to be involved in a war with another race.

FTL communication is considered impossible by the scientific community.

The development of highly sophisticated but non-sentient AIs enables TOSF warships to have very small crews, typically a dozen technicians plus ten or less officers. The bridge usually has only one officer at a Command Station monitoring multiple AIs, each assigned to a specific task such as astrogation, communications, tactical, etc.

Chapter One:

Sub-Commander Wolfe Koenig woke with a start and realized that he had fallen asleep while on Bridge duty. There were no regulations that prohibited sleeping on Bridge duty—the TOSF having recognized the difficulty in staying awake while in the Command Pod—but it was not encouraged. Additionally, they built in safeguards such as constant monitoring of CP occupants’ brain waves. If they were about to drop into the deeper levels of sleep that took longer to awaken from, the Pod would wake them up. But that wasn’t what had happened. This time there was a status change in the recon data, and Koenig had reacted to the ping that always accompanied a status change.

A scan of the tactical data displayed within the pod showed movement in the space around the moon that the alien Jabs were using as their forward base. Koenig’s ship, Excalibur, was on a covert reconnaissance mission to keep an eye on the Jab military buildup, and because it was covert, the ship had to rely on sunlight reflected off the hulls of Jab ships as they orbited that moon. Determining an accurate number of ships was difficult because the reflections were constantly appearing and disappearing as the hulls changed their orientation relative to this system’s sun. It was already quite clear, though, that there were a lot of ships orbiting the moon, and now it appeared that they were on the move. A quick check of the larger astrogational situation confirmed his fears. The Jab fleet was not heading back into Jab territory, which meant that it was heading for UETO space along the narrow chain of star systems that made up one of three star-bridges that crossed the void between the Jab part of the spiral arm and the human part. If the Jabs were about to attack human colonies, the nearest one—and so far, only one—in this star-bridge was New Shangri-la, four jumps back. Excalibur had to get there first to warn the TOSF fleet stationed there, but it was not Koenig’s call to make. He was the Executive Officer, not the CO. He quickly activated the internal com system and called the CO’s quarters.

Dejanus here, said the CO.

Sorry to wake you, sir, but the Jab fleet is on the move, and they’re not heading home.

How many ships, Wolfe?

TacComp has confirmed 21, but another 34 sunlight contacts that were being tracked in orbit have suddenly gone dark.

There was silence as Dejanus processed what that meant. Thirty-four ships that had been moving in a predictable orbit around the moon were now moving in a complete different way that was not reflecting sunlight back to Excalibur. That had to mean they were also moving with the 21 that still could be seen, for a total of 55 ships headed for human territory.

I see, said Dejanus finally. Have you taken any action yet?

Not yet, sir.

Then let’s turn this ship around and hightail it back to our fleet asap, XO. Call me if there is any change in the situation.

Understood, sir. Koenig heard the channel disconnect. Astro, this is the BDO. Determine a least-time trip back to New Shangri-la and execute immediately.

Jump parameters have been determined. Excalibur is maneuvering, said the always calm, electronic voice of the astro AI.

Koenig took a deep breath. The Jabs had a head start in time since it had taken the reflected sunlight almost five minutes to reach Excalibur, but the ship was already positioned in the direction that the Jab fleet was more or less headed for. That meant there was a chance that Excalibur could stay ahead of the Jab fleet and maybe even increase the gap between them. A lot depended on how quickly the ship could maneuver around the stars in the intervening systems in order to be able to enter hyperspace again. There was also an element of risk. It was possible that Excalibur might emerge into normal space within detection distance of the Jab fleet or vice versa, and while Excalibur’s jet-black hull, flattened surfaces and state-of-the-art ECM could make it harder for the Jab ships to detect it, they might still be able to do so, and the combined firepower of 55 ships would make short work of one light cruiser.

The rest of Koenig’s duty shift went quickly; certainly he felt no temptation to doze off. This was the worst-case scenario that TOSF had worried about. With at least two potentially hostile alien races on UETO’s borders, the Space Force could not risk concentrating most of their ships in the New Shangri-la star system. The fleet there was intended to be just strong enough to avoid tempting the Jabs into attacking without being so strong that the Jabs would feel threatened. Apparently the TOSF planners had goofed, and the Jabs now appeared to be making the opening moves of a war. If there really were 55 Jab ships heading for New Shangri-la, then Admiral Rostov’s 20 ship fleet would be badly outnumbered even if the Jab ships individually were inferior to their TOSF counterparts. Would Rostov stay and fight with the resulting almost certain destruction of the fleet, or would he order a retreat that would leave the New Shangri-la colonists undefended and at the mercy of the Jabs? Koenig hated the idea of not trying to defend the colonists, but sacrificing a significant portion of the total TOSF fleet for nothing didn’t seem to be a rational thing to do. He was glad he didn’t have to make that decision. By the time his duty shift was up, Dejanus was on the Bridge ready to take over.

Status, she said in a calm voice.

We’re on a least-time vector back to the New Shangri-la system. Sunlight contacts with the Jab fleet are intermittent now, but TacComp estimates they are 89 mega-klicks behind us. Their acceleration seems to be better than we would have expected, but they won’t catch us unless they boost a lot faster. ETA for our first jump is 12.2 minutes. ECM is on standby. We’re not being scanned.

Dejanus nodded. Very good. You’re relieved, XO. You can stay on the Bridge as an observer if you wish.

Koenig nodded. The CO is now the BDO, he said formally for the benefit of the AIs. With that ritual out of the way, he got up, then stepped aside so that she could sit down in the Command Pod. He wasn’t tired, so he decided he would take her up on her offer to let him stay on the Bridge as an observer for a while, at least until the ship entered hyperspace. The pre-jump procedure to aim the ship as accurately as possible at the calculated position of the star they were jumping to went smoothly. This particular star was only slightly bigger than Earth’s sun. As part of this ‘bridge’ across the void, it had seen enough traffic to pinpoint its exact location for jump purposes. Merely aiming the ship at the center of the distant point of light wasn’t enough. The light that Excalibur was seeing now from that star had travelled at the speed of light for over four years, and during that time the star would have moved, taking its gravity well with it. Ships jumping to it, or any other star, had to aim at the point in space where the star would be by the time the ship got there.

Under the present circumstances, Koenig wished there was a red or blue supergiant along their intended path, one that had a gravity well so wide that longer jumps could be safely made with minimal risk of missing the gravity well and theoretically continuing to travel through hyperspace forever or until the ship happened to hit the gravity well of another star. There were a few ships that had disappeared over the years, and it was theorized that they had missed their gravity well targets. The jump to the next system would take 21.4 hours. Everyone could relax during the jump. Ships travelling between the same two stars at the same time could not detect or interact with each other.

It was Koenig’s turn as BDO once again when the ship hit the target star’s gravity well and dropped back into normal space. Dejanus was also on the Bridge but had not exercised her prerogative to take command. Koenig’s task now was to make sure the ship got to the other side of the gravity well as quickly as possible while also avoiding detection by the Jab fleet. That meant accelerating on a trajectory that got very close to this sun. The faster they were travelling, the closer they could get without endangering the ship and the sooner they’d be on the other side where the ship could line up for the next jump.

Tactical, passive sensors only. Astro, we’ll wait for the sensor sweep before maneuvering.

Both AIs acknowledged their orders. The sensor sweep took less than 30 seconds. No other ships were detected either visually or from EM transmissions. Either the Jab fleet had arrived far enough away to be invisible or more likely simply hadn’t arrived at all yet. Koenig gave the astrogation AI the nod to begin the high-speed flyby of this system’s sun. Koenig checked the distance where Excalibur would be at its closest point to the sun and his eyes widened in surprise. The astrogation AI was taking his order for a least-time path literally. The projected temperature impact on the ship would be enough to overpower the life support system, and the internal temperature would increase noticeably. He turned to look at Dejanus, and when she saw him looking at her, he gestured for her to come over to the Command Pod.

The internal temperature is projected to spike high enough that some of the crew may pass out from heat stroke. I recommend adjusting the trajectory to give us a cooler flyby, sir.

Dejanus looked at the data, and after considering the issue for a few seconds, shook her head. No. A wider flyby will bring us back to the fleet a few minutes later, and if we do this for each jump, it could add up to enough lost time that it might make a huge difference to the outcome when the Jab fleet shows up. Leave the trajectory as is. I’ll advise the crew to take whatever precautions we can, but they’ll just have to suck it up and take it.

The flyby turned out to be very difficult for the human crew. Two crewmen passed out from the heat in spite of the precautions. Koenig himself felt close to passing out during the worst of it. As the ship started putting distance between it and the sun, hull temperature began to drop and so did the internal temperature. With another close flyby coming up in less than 24 hours, Koenig had the idea of letting the interior of the ship get colder than normal in between the flybys. The ship was equipped with cold weather gear in case the crew had to land on a cold planet and which they could now use to stay warm. Dejanus approved the suggestion. The idea worked well enough that there was a noticeable difference at the second flyby’s closest point. No one passed out this time. There were two more jumps to go before they would arrive at New Shangri-la system.

To Koenig’s surprise, there had not been any sign at all of the Jab fleet by the time Excalibur emerged from hyperspace into the New Shangri-la system. Dejanus has a pre-recorded warning ready to transmit as soon as they were back in normal space. It would take almost nine minutes to reach the fleet, but that would still be faster than the ship acting as a courier. By this time, the ship had accumulated a lot of velocity, and since it was highly unlikely that Admiral Rostov’s 7th Frontier Fleet would end up moving in the same direction as Excalibur now was, slowing down so that the ship could maneuver seemed like a good idea. The astrogation AI was instructed accordingly.

BOTH KOENIG AND DEJANUS were expecting to get a response from Rostov after a 20-minute delay, and when 25 minutes had passed without any messages, Koenig began to wonder what Rostov was doing. If the fleet was in the process of boosting out of orbit, which it should be doing by now, Dejanus needed to know the fleet’s trajectory so that Excalibur could rendezvous with it. Was it possible that Rostov hadn’t received the message, that a junior officer had taken it upon him or herself to wait to give the admiral the message if the admiral was asleep or in a meeting? Koenig started to get angry. He and the crew had put up with very uncomfortable, even dangerous conditions, in order to give Rostov as much time as possible to prepare for the Jab attack, and that effort now looked as though it was wasted. Just as he was about to suggest to Dejanus that they send another message, they heard the com AI’s voice.

A message from Admiral Rostov has been received. Replaying now.

Rostov to Dejanus. 7th Fleet will withdraw from this system. Rendezvous data to follow. Message ends.

Astrogation data has been received and passed on to Astrogation AI, said the com AI.

Let’s see the rendezvous trajectory, Astro, said Dejanus in a deceptively calm voice. Koenig was conflicted. Rostov had taken the strategically rational decision, which would also affect fleet morale negatively. If the Jabs treated the New Shangri-la colonists badly, Rostov might be vilified regardless of how strategically correct his decision was.

The new data appeared on the main display as two trajectories. One curved away from the planet. That would be 7th Fleet. The other was the trajectory that would bring Excalibur to the fleet, travelling in the same direction and at the same velocity. The astro AI then added a dotted line representing the path the fleet would need to take to line up for the first jump to the nearest star leading back to UETO space.

Dejanus frowned as she looked at the new data. That doesn’t look right. Why isn’t the rendezvous more parallel to the jump vector, Astro?

If the jump destination was the Omicron star system, which would be the logical choice, the rendezvous trajectory could and should be more parallel. The data supplied by Admiral Rostov only makes sense if he intends to jump the fleet to the blue giant star designated as Alpha9. The display zoomed out to show the layout of star systems within 25 light years, which was the distance to the Alpha9 system—with its massive blue sun—from the New Shangri-la system.

What the hell is he thinking? said a clearly perturbed Dejanus.

The astro AI must have thought she was asking him and replied. A successful jump to Alpha9 would shorten the elapsed time to reach the Base at Roark’s Drift by 29.9 hours.

But look at the distance! she said. Even with a blue giant, that’s one hell of a risky jump. Has anyone successfully made a jump like that, Astro?

Not with a target star of that size. A slightly longer jump was made successfully to a super-giant that was 10.3 times more massive than Alpha9’s sun.

Which meant the gravity well was ten times wider too, said Dejanus with disgust. Damn, this just doesn’t feel right!

When it was clear that she was finished speaking, Koenig said in a low voice, We should acknowledge the admiral’s rendezvous order.

After a few seconds of silence, she turned to look at him. Yeah, I know we should, but I don’t really feel like acknowledging it, so here’s what we’re going to do. Astro, you will modify our vector to match the admiral’s data. Com, you will wait exactly five and a half minutes from the point when we received the reply before sending the acknowledgement signal. We’ll let the Admiral wonder what we’re thinking during that time. Maybe he’ll get the message that I don’t like this plan at all.

Koenig wasn’t thrilled with it either.

It took over two hours for Excalibur to slide into her designated slot in the fleet formation. Even as she was doing so, Dejanus opened a com channel to Corregidor, the fleet flagship. Rostov took his time answering her call.

Rostov here. Make is fast, Commander, I want to begin our turn to line up for the next jump.

That’s what I wanted to talk with you about, sir. My understanding of the estimated jump error probability is that it’s unacceptably high, and therefore I’m naturally curious as to why we’re going to attempt a jump that risky.

When Rostov replied, his tone was borderline condescending. I guess Excalibur hasn’t gotten the latest astrogational upgrades yet. Corregidor has, and AstroComp is calculating a jump error probability of less than 5%. That puts it into the grey zone where a jump is allowed if there are extenuating circumstances. I’m sure you’d agree that we have that now. If your scouting report is accurate, he paused for a couple of seconds, and I’m sure it was, then humans and the Jabs are at war, and that gives me the latitude to take this risk. Was there anything else you wish to bring up at this critical time, Commander?

Dejanus ignored his implied criticism. May I suggest that one ship take the risky shortcut to warn Trinity Base while the rest of the fleet takes the usual path back, sir?

Rostov’s response was immediate. No, you may not. This discussion is at an end.

Signal from FlagAstro of a fleet course change, Commander, said the astro AI.

Dejanus sighed. Okay, Astro. Execute the signal.

The turn took another 21 minutes, and by the time the fleet flagship was beginning its line up of the pre-jump trajectory, the fleet had received a signal from New Shangri-la that a large concentration of unidentified ships was dropping into orbit. The Jab fleet had arrived, and Dejanus’s warning was now confirmed.

With a long, risky jump like this, Dejanus would have expected Corregidor’s astrogational AI to take at least ten minutes to aim the ship as precisely as possible to the distant star’s center. She was therefore surprised and somewhat alarmed when the flagship signaled to the rest of the fleet that they could start to match her trajectory after only half that time.

Goddammit, what’s the rush? she said to Koenig who was the only other human on the Bridge. There’s no possible way the Jab fleet can catch us before we jump, even if we take another hour to do it. Why not take a few extra minutes to get the most accurate trajectory possible? When it became clear that Koenig had nothing to say, she continued. Astro, I want you to check the flagship’s alignment with Alpha9 while we match vectors. Let me know if you think the flagship’s vector could be better. That extra task delayed Excalibur’s alignment, and therefore she became the last ship in the fleet to signal her readiness for the jump.

Fleet Commander on Tac2, Commander, said the com AI.

Dejanus switched channels to her Command Pod. Excalibur Actual speaking, said Dejanus in the formal form of address that ship COs normally didn’t bother with.

What’s taking your Astro so long to get aligned, Commander? Rostov didn’t bother to hide his annoyance.

Just double-checking the overall jump trajectory, Admiral. Dejanus thought she heard Rostov swear under his breath, but it could have been her imagination.

You tell your Astro that if Excalibur isn’t aligned in the next two minutes, I’ll order him replaced and transferred to a cargo hauler. FC out!

The astro AI managed to get the ship aligned within the deadline to no one’s surprise. With all ships in the fleet now aligned perfectly with the flagship and jump velocity attained, the order was given to enter hyperspace.

It was 131.3 hours later when both Koenig and Dejanus were on the Bridge again watching the jump chronometer countdown to the second when the ship should drop back down into normal space. Koenig watched the countdown clock hit zero and then start counting up again. After ten more seconds, Dejanus began shaking her head. She had a horrified expression on her face.

We’ve missed. That bastard has killed us all. She took a deep breath before turning to Koenig. No point in either of us staying on the Bridge now. We may all die from starvation before the ship runs into a random gravity well. If, by some miracle, it happens while we’re still alive, the AIs will tell us. I’m going back to my quarters and getting drunk. I suggest you do the same, Wolfe.

Chapter Two:

Koenig woke to the persistent sound of a call from one of the Bridge AIs. XO here. What is it?

The ship has dropped back into normal space, Commander, said the astro AI in a voice so calm that Koenig thought he was still asleep and dreaming.

What? In his half-asleep state of mind, he wasn’t quite sure if he had heard what he thought he had heard.

The jump has ended, XO.

With the realization of what the AI was saying, Koenig suddenly became fully awake. Has the CO been notified?

An attempt was made to call her, but she is not answering our hails.

Keep trying. I’ll be on the Bridge momentarily. Begin scanning for other ships! As he ran to the Bridge, he realized that he hadn’t asked the AI where they were now. For all he knew, they might have dropped into the home system of the Tong.

He arrived at the Bridge and immediately got settled into the Command Pod. Any signs of other ships yet? he asked quickly.

Not yet, replied the tactical AI. Shall I turn on our running lights?

Koenig almost said yes but realized that giving away their own position might not be the wisest thing if they really were in hostile territory.

Not yet. Astro! Where the hell are we?

Preliminary triangulations of known quasars indicate that this star system is 987 light years from the New Shangri-la star system.

The answer was so stunning that Koenig’s stomach threatened to heave. He started shaking his head. Nooo. That can’t be right. We’ve been in hyperspace for 89 days. That’s roughly 16 times longer than the time needed to get to Alpha9, which was 25 light years from the New Shangri-la system, and 16 times 25 is only 408. How can we be more than twice as far away?

The astro AI hesitated, something that Koenig had never seen before. I have no explanation for the discrepancy. Spectral analysis of quasars and other marker stars is exact. Their identification has zero margin for error. The triangulation calculations are easily verified. AstroComp has run the computations ten times with the exact same results. It may be that elapsed time on board ship was distorted by previously unsuspected effects of long duration jumps.

Koenig felt his initial exuberance upon hearing the news of the end of the jump come crashing down into despair. Excalibur’s food supply was not infinite. When it was clear that they had missed Alpha9, Koenig had taken a careful inventory of the available food and calculated that, even with severe rationing, they only had enough to last 233 days more or less: almost eight months. Three months worth had been used up, leaving 144 days worth. It would take far longer than that to make their way back across the intervening 987 light years in a series of small jumps, assuming there were no critical system breakdowns along the way. Excalibur had never gone for eight months without shipyard maintenance. On the face of it, finding a solution to the food problem seemed like an impossible task, but at least they weren’t still lost in hyperspace. He had to focus on the immediate concerns, which were determining if there were any threats in this system and finding the rest of the fleet.

Have passive sensors detected any ships or EM transmissions?

Negative, XO, said the tactical AI.

Koenig really wanted to tell the AI to turn on the ship’s running lights so that other ships from the