Free Bayley, Barrington J - Novel 10 by The Zen Gun (v1.1)

was
the main firing mechanism; it was just too big to accommodate comfortably
outside the sweep of the hull.
                 The
gun crew was all animal: pigs, baboons and dogs who crouched before their command and data screens. They let out a cheer as their
admiral entered the turret.
                 Magroom
knew only a little about the specifications of these weapons. They had
three-axis rotation and could aim towards a large portion of the celestial
globe. When in use they extended their shell-stabilising barrels to a mile's
length (presumably all Lilac Willow 's gun barrels were now so extended). How far
they could fling their shells he did not know, but he had heard a rumoured rate
of fire of an incredible one round per second.
                 Archier
was passing a few moments in encouraging banter with the platform crew. He
strolled back to Magroom. "They're keen, dead keen. Do you know the
history of the long-range Star Force gun?" he asked amiably.
                 "Not
much."
                 "It's
the only answer to how ships may fight one another when moving faster than
light. Beam weapons using radiation energy are clearly useless, and the feetol
drive is too bulky to be fitted to missiles—if we did that, a ship the size of Lilac Willow could carry no more than a
dozen or so. Even then, they would be very much slower than the ships they were
launched against! So the breech-firing cannon it is. What makes it possible is
that an object expelled from a feetol bubble retains a remnant of that bubble
for a while, and so may still move faster than normal light. These shells are fired
off at a tremendous velocity, about a million times the normal velocity of
light. They go ploughing through normal spacetime, losing speed all the time as
their remnant feetol bubbles dissipate. In good conditions they can range about
half a light year before dropping below c.
                 "Do
you see the reason why the shells have to be heavy? A travelling feetol bubble
encounters the resistance of the normal space through which it moves. The
magnitude of this resistance is an inverse function of the mass contained
within the bubble. If the shells were too light, they would slow down even
before their bubbles had weakened."
                 There
was a point Magroom had wondered about but had never been able to find out.
"They have to be aimed across
half a light-year? On a target no larger than a ship?''
                 Archier
smiled. "No, that would be asking too much of our gun comps. The shells
have limited self-guidance near the end of their trajectory."
                 Staring
at the massive gun, Magroom had to remind himself that this was not fantasy. This was real—and in deadly
earnest.
                 It
gave him an altogether different perception of things. This, he realized, was what maintained the Empire, which he had
thought of as a vague entity up to now. Oh, he had heard of how the Empire
would sometimes punish worlds, but it rarely happened and the stories had an
almost fictional quality. It came home to him with a vengeance, now, that this
warship with its twenty big guns was the reason why it rarely happened. In space, the Empire dominated; it could
blast any rival force of ships to kingdom come. As long as it could do that, as
long as no nonimperial fleets could defend disobedient worlds, there could be
no effective rebellion.
                 All
the effete decadence, the senses-soaked sophistication, he had grown used to
since boarding Lilac Willow, faded
into the distance. This was the sharp end, and here the Empire meant business.
                 An
old refrain came to his mind: "Rule
the Empire, the Empire rule the stars." "But
tell me, Admiral," he said, "isn't it true you haven't got all that
many of these ships left now?"
                 "That's
right," Archier admitted with a sigh. "Not as many