Scaevola's Triumph (Gaius Claudius Scaevola trilogy Book 3) (25 page)

"So," the leading scientist started, "as a problem this is rather straightforward."

Gaius said nothing.

"We don't know what the M'starn's advantage is," the scientist continued, "but in this case, we don't have to."

"You don't?" Gaius said with a start.

"So our young alien has a voice," the scientist said. "No, young Terran, we don't. The problem can be simply addressed by logic."

"Just what Timothy would have said," Gaius muttered.

"Then your Timothy was correct." The scientist almost preened himself, then cackled at Gaius' look of disgust. "If what I've heard about you is correct, you can get to the problem, if not the solution."

Klendor looked at Gaius in puzzlement.

"Break down exactly what you have to do in steps," the scientist suggested.

"We've got to detect the enemy in time," Gaius said simply, "we have to properly lock the weapons onto them, then we have to shoot them before they can do whatever they wished to do."

"See! You're there already."

"But . . . but I still have no idea what to do!"

"Because you have no faith in yourself. Oh, I don't expect the technical answer, but you should know what sort of thing to do. What can go wrong?"

"If I knew that I'd . . ."

"Oh yes, you know, otherwise you wouldn't be here," the scientist said. "You just don't know you know. Think about why you can't destroy them?"

"The first thing, I suppose," Gaius said, "is if we hit their ships with our weapons and nothing happens. In that case . . ."

"Forget that," the scientist said. "If that happens you're always going to lose. There's no way we could develop a new weapons system in time, when we've made no advances in about nineteen million years."

"Backing off," Gaius frowned, "I suppose we could miss our targets, but that's what practice is for. To make sure we don't."

"Exactly. So that leaves?"

"We don't see them?" Gaius offered.

"They have to make their ships almost invisible," the scientist said. "Ulse can do that, so we have to assume they can."

"But we detected the Ulsian ships," Gaius frowned. "From what I can make out, you can always detect mass accelerating, or moving through a gravitational field, so that can't be it."

"Correct," the scientist smiled. "There is no way their mass won't be detected, so that leaves . . ?"

"There's nothing left!" Klendor protested, as he saw Gaius' frown.

"Well, young Roman?"

"I suppose we could detect the presence of their mass," Gaius said slowly, "but perhaps we couldn't see them specifically enough, or . . ."

"Or?" the scientist encouraged.

"I suppose the inertial detectors could put the ships in the wrong place," Gaius looked up questioningly at the scientist. "If that were possible we'd shoot, but we'd always miss."

"That, more or less, is all that's left," the scientist nodded.

"So what can we do about that?" Gaius asked, almost helplessly.

"There're actually two problems," the scientist said. "The first is to get some idea that they're there before it's too late. You've got to realize that gravitational waves carry incredibly little energy, so one strategy for them is to send in a small ship and transmit a background, and as the rest come through, reduce the background."

"They would have told us they're coming!" Klendor pointed out.

"But not when and where," Gaius muttered, "and that's the most important fact."

"We can deal with that strategy anyway," the scientist replied. "No, that's not the difficult problem."

"Well, what is?" Klendor asked.

"Suppose, when they come, they have some emitters. They know where our detectors are, so they can arrange some interference effects. We see them, but . . ."

"In the wrong place," Gaius nodded.

"That, in a nutshell, is your problem."

"And I came looking for an answer," Gaius shook his head in dismay.

"So you will get one," the scientist continued. "If you can't solve the first problem, consider the second, and you find if you solve this, you solve both."

"And that is?"

"How to aim weapons properly if you still can't see them," the scientist shrugged.

"And how do you do that?" Gaius asked.

"I'm not exactly sure," the scientist said, "but there are some fairly clear tactics to consider. You see," he explained, mainly to Klendor, "one of their weaknesses is, once one of their ships is hit, it will be irreversibly lit up, and if the others were in a formation, they can't leave the formation without turning, and creating patterns we can see."

"So we need to fire broad bursts?" Klendor asked.

"Yes, and not necessarily with much power," the scientist said. "Your first objective is to find them, so you wish to cover as much area as possible with some energy. Once you know where one of them is, then we need optimized patterns to maximize the chance of doing damage to as many ships as possible. Then we clean up the damaged ones with specific fire. We shall send you a variety of firing patterns and sequences. Fortunately, we have one further factor working for us." The scientist leaned back with a superior look on his face.

"And that is?" Gaius asked, after a pause. Whatever else he was going to do, he was not going to let them see any frustration on his part, but on the other hand, he needed an answer.

"To destroy a well-fortified installation, the ship has to hit it directly with non-dispersed weapons, or they have to land and do something with ground-based weapons," the scientist said, "and to do the first with certainty, it has to get reasonably close. So to do any effective damage, it has to come in either a straight or a curved line from where we detect it. To fly in a straight line, we will know when it will arrive, as long as we detected it in the first place." The Ulsian scientist paused, then gave Gaius a challenging look. "To fly in a curved line, it has to do what?"

"Exert force by imparting momentum to something within our reference frame," Gaius replied evenly. He felt rather pleased with himself. Something of the last few weeks at last looked like being of use.

"Interesting answer," the scientist said with a puzzled look. "Most Ulsians would say throw out a detectable exhaust, and while that is true to a point, it is far from complete. Anyway, yes, you are correct. And the action of that force is detectable, even if the ship is not."

"Always assuming you have detectors suitable for that force in the correct place," Gaius offered. "If the enemy destroyed the detectors first . . . "

"They won't even know where they are," the Ulsian scientist said in a superior tone, "and if they waste time looking for them, then you or the Space Forces can have some free shots at them."

"Suppose they stop the messages from the detectors?" Gaius asked.

"Much better question," the Ulsian said. There was a pause, then what Gaius realized was a smile of satisfaction passed over the Ulsian's face. "Yes, they could do that, and perhaps that is their strategy, to send blanket false signals saying nothing is there. That is good."

"Sounds bad to me," Klendor said in a dispirited tone.

"And what does our Terran think?" the scientist asked in a challenging tone.

"It depends on whether you can detect the source of their false signals," Gaius replied, after a moment's thought.

"It does indeed," the scientist replied, as he nodded towards Gaius in approval. "You see," he explained, almost to Klendor alone, "it is impossible to send any signal from a moving object without leaving a signature of that motion. We must work on that immediately."

"How long will it take?" Gaius asked.

"You can have some training simulations next week," the Ulsian scientist said. "You will get the detections systems and motion analysers as soon as possible. Perhaps, some simple ones in two weeks."

"We really need them yesterday," Gaius muttered, almost to himself.

"I know," the scientist said, "but you also want ones that work. I promise you we'll work as hard as we can, as quickly as we can."

Gaius looked at the scientist and nodded. "I know," he smiled. "Nobody can do better than their best, but that may be what we need. But one more question?"

"Yes?"

"These dephasers I have been told about. Can they send a very weak signal over a very large volume and still work?"

"They can," Klendor said, "but the effect on the enemy would be minimal."

"And what does our Roman think about that answer?" the scientist said with a nod and a smile.

"If I have understood properly what I have been trying to learn," Gaius said slowly, almost with a touch of embarrassment that he was going to make a fool of himself, "if you could generate a general reaction inside all solid objects, they would get warmer and give out black body radiation, or at least grey body radiation, and we could see that, in principle at least."

"Yes, you could, and interestingly enough, that was the basis of some earlier detection systems. They would be worth regenerating. Now, I have things to do, so you can leave this in my hands.

* * *

"Well?" Klendor asked later.

"One more thing to do," Gaius replied. "Those scientists reminded me of something I should never have overlooked."

"Which is?"

"Lets suppose they get past our major weapons and land? They could neutralize our defences, then do what they wished."

"They're not going to get through," Klendor said firmly.

"You don't know that," Gaius said, "and the answer's simple. Find tunnels connected to the libraries, and have mobile ground forces stationed there."

"I'm not sure we can do that," Klendor frowned. "We don't have the authority."

"Did whoever ordered us to defend this place?"

"Most definitely," Klendor nodded. "I see the point. I'll see they get the request." He paused, then asked, "Anything else?"

"It's still not entirely satisfactory," Gaius shrugged, then he added wryly, "In war it is never entirely satisfactory until victory is inevitable."

"We're not quite there yet," Klendor agreed.

"Nevertheless," Gaius smiled, "I can now agree with your earlier position. Apart from more exercises, we have done what we can."

"Not quite," Klendor smiled. "I have a new uniform for you."

"So," Gaius mused, "the Ulsians have let me into their forces."

"No, they haven't," Klendor said in a sadder tone, "but they have decided that if you are correct, you may be involved in real action. This uniform has fire protection, and will offer physical protection against flying bits of metal, or, for that matter, bullets, small bombs, various beams, and many other weapons."

"All I can say is if I have to protect myself against hand weapons, I think I've lost," Gaius frowned.

"Possibly," Klendor nodded, "but fire is always a risk, and why take risks if you don't have to."

"Agreed," Gaius nodded. "I'll start wearing it tomorrow."

* * *

To everybody's surprise, elite ground forces were immediately placed under Gaius' command. The exercises continued, including exercises involving these ground forces, until many of the Ulsians began to wonder what had happened to them. Then Gaius arranged for contests, with scores to be kept between sites, and cheers would go up when one site slenderly beat another. One on one contests were arranged, where a site would control a simulated attack against another site. At first Klendor was rather scathing about this approach, but it became apparent that new tricks were being learned, and the attacks became more and more cunning in nature. But the defenders adjusted techniques, for nobody was going to let another section beat them.

The next problem was to make field promotions. The various libraries would be partly controlled from this one central command post, but it was imperative that there were also local commanders in each centre, together with replacements so that whatever happened, someone would take command. Exercises were also carried out with trial commanders, and soon promotions were commissioned.

Gaius also ordered Klendor to look into the soldier's food, and to try to make what improvements he could. He made sure the various shifts had access to their friends, entertainment, or whatever they wanted in their stand-down periods. His biggest problem, as he told Klendor, was that he could not join them. They tended to find his way of eating repulsive, and he found their sport and music incomprehensible. But the Ulsians at least recognized he was making an effort, and morale was high.

* * *

Lucilla and Vipsania had now made production a fine art, and as they became more efficient, they had a little more spare time. They had found a cafeteria near a central park which was prepared to stock their food, as well as the Krothian wine, and at least once a week they would end up there for drinks.

Gaius made every attempt he could to join them, and this time he had promised to come, after the exercise. Lucilla and Vipsania were seated, looking out over what they had been assured was a 'natural' Ulsian scene, although as Vipsania had remarked, it was probable that nobody on Ulse had any idea of what a natural scene on Ulse looked like. A gentle and pleasantly warm breeze wafted across their faces, and a number of 'clouds' were drifting lazily across the 'sky'. There were a number of the squat conical trees scattered across the equivalent of grass, and apart from that, nothing other than the odd Ulsian walking somewhere. There were no animals, no birds, no flowers . . .

"See anything?"

The two women turned to see Gaius sit down. "Not a lot," Lucilla said, "but it's very pleasant."

"I know this is underground," Vipsania added, "and I know the clouds are simulated, but I would have preferred it if they could have simulated some flowers."

"From what I can make out," Gaius said as he poured himself a glass of wine, "Ulsian plants don't have flowers as we know them."

"How tedious," Lucilla muttered.

"Apparently they have a different strategy for reproduction," Gaius said. "Not that I know what it is," he added quickly.