Midshipman Henry Gallant in Space (The Henry Gallant Saga) (27 page)

Gallant said, “Could this also explain why they have no small fighter craft?”

McCall asked, “What do you mean?”

Gallant said, “They may need several minds working in unison to form useful patterns for the neural interface and AI to interpret.”

“I hadn’t thought of that, but it makes sense,” concluded McCall. She asked, “Would you mind if I ask something for my own curiosity?”

“Not at all,” said Gallant.

“What does it feel like? I mean, when you’re mentally visualizing all the ships and planets and everything, right in the middle of a battle?”

“The best illustration I can think of is that it’s like being a quarterback on the football field. You think about what the opposing team may do and then call a play. The ball is hiked and you fade back into a pocket protected by your linemen. You sense where the pressure is on that line and avoid being sacked. As you watch the receivers run down field, you analyze the defenders' coverage. Finally, you throw the ball to the open receiver. If you’ve had a clear mental image of the defense and your own players, you should hit the receiver in stride, and he runs for a touchdown.”

“You men and your sport’s analogies,” snickered McCall.

Gallant was anxious to learn what role he would play in any future fleet operations. He expressed his concerns to Lieutenant McCall.

She said, “Before Admiral Collingsworth decides on your role in future actions, he has ordered that your neural interface ability be evaluated in detail.”

She pressed a button on her desk. Lieutenant Rudman came into the room. Rudman was an SAI officer with training in evaluating a pilot’s ability to use a neural interface. He began setting up his apparatus on the table before them. He explained the evaluation process to Gallant. He set up an elaborate neural interface connected to an AI simulation apparatus for testing Gallant’s responses to various stimuli.

The AI simulated a huge area of space with many natural obstacles and an increasing number of friendly and enemy ships conducting maneuvers. The AI stimulation tests were connected to a neural interface that Gallant wore for several intense hours. When they were done, his brain felt like a spent dishrag.

Rudman and McCall looked at each other with stunned expressions as they analyzed the results. Finally, they left to report to Admiral Collingsworth.

Gallant waited, nursing a cup of coffee until McCall returned. She asked him to sit across the table from her. She licked her lips and took a deep breath, clearly nervous about what she was to say. “Even though you’re the product of natural selection, without any genetic engineering, you were born with the enhanced enzymes necessary for a fighter pilot. Before you, only genetically engineered humans had these enzymes in sufficient quantities to operate the neural interface.”

Gallant looked directly into McCall’s eyes reading her troubled emotions. She said, “The admiral was anxious for SAI to evaluate your talents and get a more complete picture of your limitations. The tests that Lieutenant Rudman completed, along with the AI log of your Eagle, have given us a pretty good picture of your current capabilities.”

Gallant’s curiosity mounted as he waited for the results.

McCall said, “You appear to be vastly superior to both our strong-AI avatars, as well as the best of our genetically engineered pilots. Not only that, but you may be stronger than the collective pattern recognition of the Titans. You have a greater range of vision over the battlefield. You have a greater capacity to visualize and evaluate more individual ships and objects. In short, you may be one or more orders of magnitude superior to any other fighter pilot.”

Gallant was stunned by the scale of her assessment.

“The admiral is assigning you to his staff aboard
Superb
. He intends to commit you to special missions as he sees fit. A new Eagle fighter is ready and an astrogator will be assigned when you report to
Superb
’s Squadron 801.”

“Would it be possible for Midshipman Sam Wellman to be my astrogator? I know him, and it will be easier for us to act as a team,” said Gallant.

“That should be no problem.”

Gallant sat on the edge of Kelsey’s hospital bed as she erupted with laughter. She was clearly enjoying his recount of his run-in with some of the United Planets' political leaders.

“It wasn’t funny!” exclaimed Gallant. “Those senators roasted me from stem to stern.”

“Oh Henry, keep your perspective. You’ve been through worse hazing at the academy. Why can’t you see the humor in it?” asked Kelsey, clearly enjoying her own private joke.

“Am I really that transparent?” he asked. “Suppose you explain the humor to me. Please, I’d like to understand.”

“You did your duty. You did nothing wrong. The senators have no legitimate case against you.” She sighed and placed her hand on his. “To politicians, perception trumps reality. They’re attempting to create a public perception favorable to themselves. They’re less concerned about what’s real. In the end, all they’ve accomplished is to put themselves out on a limb by condemning you for the vagaries of war. When you chase the Titans off the Jupiter frontier, they’ll sing your praise and pretend they never doubted you.”

“Kelsey, do you always see the rainbows—never the rain?” said Gallant, joining Kelsey in laughter, at last.

“Nonsense,” she replied. “Don’t you know that to a farmer, rain is even better than rainbows?”

“I can’t win,” said Gallant, conceding any remnants of argument. “Anyway, my meeting with the SAI officer, Lieutenant McCall, went well. She confirmed your analysis that the Titans are telepathic.”

Kelsey nodded thoughtfully.

He hesitated and then added, “She also told me, I being assigned to Squadron 801 on
Superb
. Sam Wellman will be my astrogator.” Gallant’s voice trailed off on the word, ‘astrogator.’

“That’s great. Sam is a good man,” she said. “I wish I were going with you, but the doctors say I’ve a bit of physical therapy to complete, along with at least one more surgery.”

He was going to tell her more about the neural interface exam results, but this didn’t seem the occasion to open that topic. There was an awkward silence of several minutes. Then, because they were no longer comfortable talking about more important things, they renewed their animated conversation by discussing the more mundane topics of the day. Finally, it was time for Gallant to leave.

“'Bye, Kelsey,” he said, dismissing a vague sense of loss.

“Godspeed,” she said, knowing she wouldn’t be with him for his next battle. Then she added with a smile, “I’ll see you on Jupiter Station.”

He simply nodded and left to report for duty aboard
Superb
.

Admiral Collingsworth led twenty-four battle cruisers, sixty cruisers, and over two hundred destroyers into the center of the asteroid belt. The battle cruisers formed a three-dimensional diamond similar to an arrowhead with
Superb
at the very tip. The cruisers formed a spherical shell around them and the destroyers formed a larger shell around the entire formation. As sunlight reflected off the titanium hulls, the fleet produced the visual illusion of a sparkling ball suspended in space.

The admiral sat in his command chair on the flag bridge looking at the main viewer staring into the asteroid field as swarms of tiny meteorites pelted
Superb
’s shielded hull. As the ship moved through space at standard velocity, the light of distant stars formed a backdrop while the reflected light of planets and asteroids flashed by. The admiral was surrounded by members of his staff working at the many technical stations. The usual ship noises were drowned out by the flurry of buzzing voices from these officers. His chief of staff, Captain William Pierce, hovered next to him whispering in his ear, providing a constant stream of information about ships, personnel, and orders.

Gallant sat in the ready-room with the other officers of
Superb
’s Squadron 801, awaiting orders to scramble. The pilots relaxed in their form-fitting pressure suits as they monitored the fleet’s progress on the viewer screen. Their armored suits rested in their fighter cockpits, ready for action. They expected to engage the Titans in a slugging match, soon. Morale was high and they were eager to meet the enemy.

Rumors about Gallant’s exploits were widely circulated and the pilots peppered him with questions. He answered them, as he had so many others, with short specific facts. Questions such as the speed advantages of the Titan cruisers came up, but Gallant reminded them that the Titan battle cruisers were only as fast as their UP counterparts, so that would limit the overall Titan fleet speed.

Thoughtfully, Sam pulled Gallant away from his inquisitive shipmates. He looked at Gallant’s arm and asked, “Henry, are you ready?

“I’m fine. Don’t worry. You’ve trained with me for the past week. Do you have any doubts?” said Gallant leaning against the ready-room hatch leading to the fighter hangar bay.

“No, of course not,” said Sam.He fidgeted a bit and then added, “I just wish they would make up their minds and let us launch already.”

“We’re still too far away to engage,” said Gallant as he considered the distances involved.

“Regardless, I wish we were going into action rather than spending all this time maneuvering about, while they think about it,” said Sam.

“What a firebrand!?” exclaimed Gallant.

“Me? No. I just mean …, Oh I don’t know what I mean,” Sam concluded.

“Be patient,” said Gallant. He showed his friend a strained smile and said, “Our time will come.” He looked at the viewer screen to get an update on the fleet disposition. He could hear commands being issued from the flagship to different elements of the fleet. By switching communications channels, he could also eavesdrop on the individual unit commands.

As the fleet approached the orbit of Ceres, Admiral Collingsworth ordered a course change. They were now heading directly toward Ceres. There could no longer be any doubt about their intensions. The Titans had to conclude that their secret base had been discovered and any hope of getting behind the Mars Fleet and attacking Mars, was over.

Orbiting Ceres was the Titan armada of 12 battle cruisers, 72 cruisers, and 288 destroyers. The Ceres family asteroid-cluster offered them a complex interweaving mesh of asteroids, orbiting so as to create numerous voids and passages. Here visual and radar detection was limited by the unusually high asteroid density. The Titans had remained hidden for some time and they had built their defenses in depth, with minefields and overlapping fields of fire. Strong fortresses with scores of missile launchers guarded the approaches.

Considering the total number of missile launchers, Admiral Collingsworth estimated that his fleet had a significant advantage over the Titan armada. However, allowing for the fortresses significantly reduced that. The question was, would the Titans fight from behind their forts.

As the fleet approached Ceres, Gallant listened as Admiral Collingsworth give deployment instructions to the Mars Fleet, dividing it into three functional divisions. The First Division led by
Superb
was the main battle force consisting of eighteen battle cruisers with a strong cruiser-destroyer escort. It was intended to face the Titan armada.

The Second Division, commanded by Admiral Hue, was a close-in bombardment force intended to tackle the Titans fortresses and facilities. It consisted of six battle cruisers with a cruiser-destroyer escort.

The Third Division, commanded by Admiral Collins, was an assault force intended to land the marines at the Titan facilities. It consisted of the assault and supply ships that had been following behind the Mars Fleet along with a destroyer escort.

Gallant knew that the Mars Fleet was powerful, well drilled, and prepared for action. He was also aware that Collingsworth hoped the Titan Fleet would come out from behind their fortresses and give him a chance for a ship-to-ship engagement. The admiral’s worse fear, however, was that the Titans might flee before he could unleash his destructive power upon them. On the other hand, if the Titan fleet did flee, the fortresses could not withstand the onslaught of the Mars Fleet.

Gallant listened to the clamor coming from the hangar bay as the squadron’s fighters were completing last minute preflight checks. The technicians were reporting to their LPOs as each requirement was completed. The details of the Eagles’ readiness captured Gallant’s attention momentarily, until he heard Admiral Collingsworth order the fleet to increased speed and close on Ceres.

The question of how the aliens would respond was quickly answered. The Titan armada was beginning a mass evacuation from its facilities. They were filling their warships with base personnel and leaving the slower transport ships behind.

Sam said excitedly, “Look at the radar scope! They don’t want to tangle with us. They’re packing up and clearing out!”

Gallant said, “They’re cutting their losses and abandoning the base. They must be preparing to retreat toward Saturn. They’re leaving their fortresses to fight a rear guard action. I suppose they will be destroying as much of the facilities as time permits.”

Sam said, “You mean they’ll destroy as much, as Admiral Collingsworth permits.”

As the Titan armada began moving in the direction of the outer planets, Admiral Collingsworth ordered, “All ships, man battle stations.” Throughout the fleet a great clatter erupted and thousands of men and women scrambled to their stations. The admiral had hoped for a decisive engagement, but now he would have to content himself with the destruction of the Ceres base.

The crews quickly manned battle stations. A moment before the ships had been full of hustle and noise, now everything was still and silent. Admiral Collingsworth ordered the First Division (the main battle force) of the Mars Fleet to slowly follow the Titan armada and to engage any Titan ships that might try to reverse course and return to Ceres.

Admiral Collingsworth ordered the Second Division to prepare to destroy the enemy fortresses. He kept the marine assault force ready to go in and dig out the Titans embedded in the facilities and stations after Second Division had done its work. Stretched within the asteroid defensive position were refueling and supply stations that had allowed the Titans to maintain their operations for a prolonged period of time. These were an important prize for the United Planets’ fleet to capture.