Chapter 28: Chapter Twenty-Three Survey

With the weapons test, out of the way, they moved on to scanning the other planets orbiting Proxima. While they had no plans to colonize the system, that didn’t mean a survey would be pointless. With the current plan to stay in the system while they work on perfecting their warp drive design, they were going to be here for a few months. Since they were going to be here that long, it was only natural that they would conduct a survey of the planets and asteroids in the system. Afterall, conducting research was not free, at the moment those projects were being paid for with the materials they had on hand. They were going to need more resources, for numerous purposes. Fuel would be the most critical, as the other resource needs could at least in part be met with recycling.

Countryman stretched, the hours were getting late. It was almost the end of the day shift, and the bridge crew was understandably getting tired. At the moment, they were on course for the next planet on their survey. They had only done the one, and that one planet had ended up being a test target for experimental weapons. Ruri was no longer on the bridge, and was down in her lab analyzing the data. They had come out of that test with some promising designs, yes. However they weren’t going to be rushing the most promising ones into service. Last he checked in on her, she was consulting with Richards on what could be done with the more promising designs to improve them. He figured in a few weeks they would be ready for a second test, with more promising designs. Countryman had given her a few ideas on the direction. With the beam weapons, the first design showed a lot of promise, but it lacked the power of the second. He had suggested largely keeping the first, but making a few modifications so that the beam could be supercharged to fire a more powerful burst when needed.

As for the standard pulsed particle cannons, they were following much the same line of thinking. The second design she put forth had a lot of power, but it had an overload problem as well. Still there was something to be pulled from that design, while they focused on using the fourth design as the base. Although the idea of a supercharger wasn’t new. It was only recently that it showed any promise of coming true. It seemed the key to it was developing a proper compression module able to focus the energy stream into a more powerful burst. Since these weapons were losing rate of fire with the addition of a compression module, he also asked her to look into a modification to increase that. For certain applications, a rapid rate of fire was more important than a high yield. Flak projectors, for example, were a perfect example of this, they were short-range particle cannons modified to fire very rapid bursts over a wide area. The flak projector was in fact the modern version of CIWS, and they used computer control to put a large number of low-yield particle pulses in the path of incoming missiles, and fighters. They were often combined with energy web projectors to provide a potent protection against missiles and fighters. 

Of course the flak projector was not the only point defense role weapon a ship would carry. At longer distances, light missiles and particle weapon mounts were used. In the case of a particle cannon, again a high rate of fire was valued. The Enterprise didn’t carry dedicated particle cannons for that role, although she did have a few strategically positioned flak projectors. Instead she carried a secondary battery of dual-purpose medium particle cannons, supplemented with a large battery of photon missiles. The reason for this was that fighters were perceived as the greater threat, especially in light of the effectiveness of energy webs at dealing with missiles. In any case since those medium guns were dual purpose, they needed their fire rate, but also would benefit greatly from the increased punch the new modules would provide.

It was the heavy particle cannons in the main battery that would need the high power the compression module provided the most. They were intended for use against other capital ships, and would need all the power they could get to penetrate capital-grade defenses. While Cathamari armor wasn’t known for being able to defend against a particle barrage all that well, the same could not be said about Human armor. The guns on the Enterprise were actually unable to penetrate the heavy armor found on human capital ships like the Enterprise. Well not the heavy battery guns anyway. The cutting beams could, but they had to remain focused for extended periods to cut through. The chief reason for this was the energy field running through it and enhancing its integrity against attack. Penetrating overlord armor could only be done in one of two ways, overwhelming the field with a localized attack or draining it with a heavy bombardment. Pulsed particle weapons were incapable of the first, while beam weapons could do it if enough emitters were focused on the same point. The only other weapon capable of doing it with a localized attack was a torpedo. Of course the armor was designed to largely prevent a localized attack, so most often a heavy bombardment would be required. In fact it was much the same with Cathamari energy screens until they developed shield-penetrating torpedoes.

Misaki looked up from her console suddenly, “Sir, long range sensors are detecting another ship.”

He leaned forward, “Can you identify it?”

“Not from this range.”

Countryman sighed, that wasn’t unexpected, “Where is it? What can you tell me about it?”

She studied her console again, and reported, “The ship is in orbit of Rigel Kent II. Sensors indicate she is approximately 350 meters in length. The image is fuzzy, but it appears to have a saucer-shaped primary hull with two outboard naccelles. I think we are looking at an Earth vessel, but I don’t recall any mention of ships sent out this way before.”

Countryman smiled, “So they did make it”

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Misaki frowned, “Who made it?”

Countryman leaned back, “Years ago before the Third Colonial war in fact Venus colony funded a sublight scientific expedition to Alpha Centauri. A single Newton class vessel was chosen for this mission, and sent out this way.”

He turned his gaze towards Eri at the helm. Countryman said, “As soon as the local scans are finished, and we have rendezvoused with the test ships, I want an intercept course plotted.”

She nodded, “Aye, sir. Plotting an intercept course for after the planned rendezvous with the test ships.”

Eri immediately began working to plot the course. While they won’t need it till later, it would be useful to have it done now. They might revise it later, but having it done now would save time regardless. As it would mean less time spent just sitting there while they plotted a safe course through the asteroids. Not that the Enterprise really cared about a few collisions with large space rocks, she actually didn’t. If she went through those at warp speed the field would shatter the asteroids, well actually more like rip them apart. The remaining debris would either bounce off the hull or be tossed harmlessly into space. At sublight speeds the rocks wouldn’t be broken up before impact, but they would still bounce off the hull. Perhaps even shatter on impact with the ship’s armored hull. There was a reason pure kinetic weapons fell out of favor. Why the different colonies adopted energy weapons for punching through armored ship hulls. Well part of the reason anyway. There were so many little factors that played into those weapons falling out of favor. Although that didn’t mean they weren’t used, just not in space.  In any case, just because they could fly right through that asteroid field without a care, doesn’t mean they would want to. It was easier to go around large objects than through them.

His mind drifted to consider what that ship may have found. They had been here awhile longer than his ship had. Given their speed, they would have arrived months ago. That much extra time meant more time to scan the planets, and assess what resources were actually here. Of course the ship also had a couple hundred more souls aboard. Given how few of them were left, every soul mattered. Speaking of how every soul mattered, they had already begun implementing measures to increase birthrates. Children were the future, and if his people were to have any chance they would need to replace their numbers. It was his job to make sure those children had a future. A place to live. That ship would be a great help towards that goal. Not only did it have a few souls that they needed to take with them, but data that may prove invaluable.

It wasn’t much longer before the relief shift arrived. As the duty officer took command of the bridge for the next few hours, Countryman headed down to the lower decks. Not to his quarters, that was his final destination, but he had a few places he wanted to visit first. Since they left he had taken up the habit of going on long walks. It gave him a chance to interact with people, and he encouraged people to come to him during these walks. The best way to learn about issues before hand was frankly to talk to people. If you didn’t talk to your people you were a poor ruler, who was out of touch with the issues that actually matter. Not to mention it certainly helped with the morale. The fact that he was out and about actively talking with people, and solving issues may have played into that.

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Williams watched Countryman walk by. The machine was honestly somewhat predictable. Confirming that he was on his walk, and engaging with the people. She turned away. Williams wasn’t going to stick around and watch. The machine wasn’t going to do something new. She knew him well enough now to know that. This gave her some time to talk to her few friends. Not many people seemed to see what she saw. Being on the council helped her position, but frankly she didn’t like it. That machine had too many friends there. He was practically allowed to do whatever he wanted. If he proposed something, it was almost certain they would agree with it.

If Williams had her way he would be gone already. She would have put that machine where he belongs, where he can’t do any harm. At the moment however all she and her friends could do was try and limit the damage he was doing. A few of her friends were on constant look out waiting for the moment he did something they could use to get rid of him. In the meantime she was looking at other means. It was going to take some time. Especially since she can’t just assasinate him. Sure he was vulnerable every time he took a walk, but that did not matter. Not without the proper support anyway. Support she currently lacked, and she had to move carefully or any plan would be doomed to failure.

Turning a corner, she reached the door she was heading for. Williams quietly slipped inside where her most trusted friends were waiting to discuss the truly important matters. Little did she know her meetings weren’t as secret as she thought.

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