Free Yorktown: Katana Krieger #1 by Bill Robinson Page B

laughs. "Aye, sir."

Then it's just me, Perez, and Ayala.

Shelby starts. "Now is it time to send a message home?"

We have one jump capable message drone. It can jump out, deliver its message, but then we're voiceless until somebody joins us or we go home. There is an appeal to calling for backup, but there's a problem there too.

"No," I try to look thoughtful, "FRIGCOM made it pretty clear that if we can't handle this, it's the end of the program. We can't ask for help until we know what we're up against. Scream for help because our RISTA thinks there are 42 inch lasers out there on a pirate ship, and I think I know what the response will be."

They both look at me, not sure.

"Hey, this is what the frigate corps is about. Sail off to exotic ports out of contact for months at a time. This is why we're cool."

They laugh. I send them back to work, and start in rereading all the reports. Just when you think you know what the puzzle looks like, you realize how many pieces are still missing. My pad beeps before I solve any of the universe's remaining mysteries.

Conclusion from RISTA and the Marines is that they aren't sure. Yorktown , like all modern Union warships, is coated with billions of microscopic mirrors that diffuse any radiant energy sent their way, negating most of the energy of a laser cannon. Ships are vulnerable because (a) the mirror system starts taking damage the second it leaves dry dock, and (b) when we open the gun ports to shoot back, the lasers themselves become targets, and if you can take the lasers out, you can shoot into the ship itself through the empty gun ports.

Everything about ship design is a compromise. An 18 inch has less power, but is a smaller target for the bad guys. A 42 would be a big target for our guns. Navy lasers use a two mirror system. You charge the weapon, light bounces between two big mirrors until it reaches maximum power, then the outer mirror magically lets it out in a sustained burst. The bigger the mirrors, the longer the charge time. An 18 inch cannon can fire four times a minute, our 24s can manage three. A 42? Smaller guns also have greater targeting flexibility, since they are physically shorter and lighter within the ship and can be realigned more easily.

So in ship design you choose, stopping power versus target size versus fire rate versus targeting ease. Compromise. Then there is armor. Corvettes have one inch titanium alloy all around, a foot of insulation, and a half inch inner hull. Yorktown has three inches of titanium armor, four feet of an internal steel honeycomb filled with insulation, radiation shielding, and fire retardant, then a one inch steel inner hull. Here the compromise is weight against engine performance and fuel requirements.

Conclusion: without knowing the fire rate they can't be sure, but they think we can take the 42 clean if the hull is in perfect condition, and maybe, just maybe, one direct hit if it's not, or if they catch us with our ports open.

On that happy note, I take my own advice and get some sleep.

By 0520 I am strapped into my couch on the bridge, wet hair floating around, but should be dry and tied down before we go. Ayala happy to be relieved early. I get with Manuel to talk about the drone we have in orbit around DO 1. While I wait, he sends it a reprogramming message that will keep it on the other side of the planet from us once we establish orbit, and, if it runs into what it thinks is a ship, it will head to the north pole of the planet, and warn us.

We're going back the way we came, meaning accelerate for a while, then coast most of the way, three days in transit. I want us to find the other ships in this system before we reach orbit.

Nothing of note happens on the way in, except I think Shelby and Palmer get in some ZGM. Disadvantage of being the captain, I have to wait until we get home. I am doubly frustrated as we finish the planning for orbital insertion, basically we're just as blind as we were when we thrusted