03:35 CNS Des Moines – CNC
While John was snoring the night away the Des Moines had jumped back into real space in the Leonis Minoris system. This fact was readily apparent to John because the slightly annoying hum that the slipstream generators produced was no longer hurting his ears.
The morning was like most of the other mornings onboard the ship. After John woke up he hurried to get cleaned, then headed to the mess to eat. After that, it was time to get to his station for the workday, something he liked getting there a bit early as there was plenty of space in CNC to go around.
After the most recent drill had concluded John went back to his work. They were interfacing with the frigates to scan the system. But something was nagging at John though. The scanning system worked perfectly, and they had reams of data to go through.
Very specifically though, there was a sensor ripple that John was focused on. It was identical to the one he had observed in both the Polux and Capella systems. Hugo noticed John was really focused on something and walked over to see what was going on.
“You look focused, what gives?”
John transferred his readings to the main viewscreen, “You know that engine snafu?”
Hugo nodded.
“Well, I think the Alliance is tracking us. If I’m not mistaken that’s a slip-wake from a small ship. No bigger than a corvette or so.”
Hugo looked at the information and was inclined to agree with John. There weren’t any obvious core signatures though, so trying to track this back to a previously identified ship was impossible. But the exact same energy reading happens in three different systems. The only plausible explanation besides their reconnaissance wing being actively tracked was an issue with their sensor readings.
John spoke up after Hugo began sitting back in his seat, “Before you ask, all of our ships have identified that same signature, but we haven’t tracked it back to a ship yet. The likelihood that all of our sensors are wrong is slim. Though I would’ve said the same thing about the maintenance crew updating the cores correctly too I suppose. I believe we are being actively tracked.”
“You don’t have to try and convince me; I agree with you. Plus, being tracked is something we must assume when we’re in enemy territory as it is,” Hugo said, “Lieutenant, you have the room. I need to discuss this with the captain.”
“Understood sir,” John said as he went back to his work.
Beth was looking at the energy signal as well. It was a slow day and there wasn’t much information being fed back to them by the frigates and destroyers in their reconnaissance wing. She spun her chair around to face John.
“I don’t think it’s a corvette. I think it’s smaller.”
John looked up at her and asked, “What makes you think that?”
“Warp wakes on our corvettes are much larger than that,” she then pulled up and shared similar readings from their own prior jumps with the same class ships, “Look at our scout corvettes wake here.”
“That’s assuming ship classes and sizes are analogous between one another,” Billy joined in the conversation, “Which they are not. Our destroyers are very nearly Alliance frigates., kind of. Our cruisers are noticeably larger.”
“Ironically their battlecruisers are larger,” John added, “But getting back to the point, their corvettes are about three-quarters the size of ours. Which makes that energy reading consistent with a ship that size.”
“I disagree. My brother is an engineer that designs these engines,” Beth rolled her eyes and shook her head, “I heard so much about them and the work he was doing that I can see those stupid formulas when I close my eyes. He was obsessed by the way, terribly obsessed. The smaller ship wouldn’t be able to hold back the wake from slipspace into real space. That’s what these spikes are.”
John was already hard at work reading some engineering books. She wasn’t wrong, in fact, thanks to her obsessive brother she gave the room exactly the information they needed. Five minutes of plunking away at his terminal allowed him to determine more accurately how large a ship could be to produce those wakes. John opened communications with one of their destroyers.
“CNS Nelson copy,” John said.
A moment later the communication system connected them, and a face appeared, “Lieutenant Lief, how can I help you.”
“I’m sharing an energy reading with you. It’s several hours old but do you happen to have any passive scans of any ships jumping back into real space out in your neck of the woods? I wouldn’t be surprised if it were trying to hide, maybe had some stealth-like qualities. Size of the vessel would be anywhere between a private void liner to a really small corvette.”
“I’ll run this through our data. VI is saying ten minutes to finish the scan. Be back to you then.”
“Happy hunting,” John said.
Billy walked over to John’s station, “Is this wise? We didn’t get permission to do this.”
“We’re caught up with work and we have a ship that is possibly tracking us,” John paused a moment before reassuring those on duty, “I’ll take the heat if there is any. This is on me.”
“Are you sure about that?” Beth whispered, “You know you’re not that popular with the higher-ups.”
“This is a known problem; we’re simply working on the problem. There’s nothing to get anyone’s panties in a twist.”
Everyone went back to work. Not that they were all that busy. Which surprised John to no end since they were in enemy territory. Though they were in a system that had a couple of mining stations and a small orbital station above one of the gas planets.
Fifteen minutes later a communication came in from the other ship which John accepted, “Hey mate, apologies for the delay. I asked the CNS Ferdinand to confirm my readings. I can confirm a contact,” the other officer shared the information which appear on their main screen.
“It’s an alliance vessel for sure. Don’t recognize that class though,” Billy said.
“We don’t have any intel on it either over here,” the officer from the CNS Nelson said.
“It’s a Hunter class stealth corvette,” John was shaking his head, “Naval Intelligence knew of the ship class but not their capabilities. We now have absolute confirmation they are tracking us. I’m sharing this information with all of our ships. At least we can track them now as well.”
“My chief already has a program to scan for that sneaky bastard. We’ll be sharing that too.”
John nodded, “Good work, happy hunting.”
He transferred this information to a data slate and messaged the bridge. The message from the bridge directed him to report to the ship’s stateroom. John stood up and asked one of the crew to cover his station. There was an audible sigh heard from John as he left the room.
05:35 CNS Des Moines – Stateroom
The stateroom, in stark contrast to the rest of the ship, was a lovely-looking room. The walls were painted a warm light blue which paired well with the oversized mahogany table in the middle of the room. John was sitting next to the chief engineer, with their backs to the door. Hugo was sitting across the table from the other two.
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The first officer walked into the room and lazily sat next to Hugo. She looked like a zombie and seemed to be just barely awake. Her hair was sloppily put together but given that she was supposed to be sleeping the officers in the room didn’t think anything of it.
Commander Shephard walked in and took his seat at the front of the table. Barely a third of the seats were being used. Kory leaned back in his seat and looked at the officers. Kelly was basically asleep, Deniz looked pissed beyond belief, while Hugo wore an apathetic look on his face. The fresh lieutenant wore a look of seriousness.
“Alright John, it’s your show. What’s going on?”
John pressed a button on his data slate. The metal doors at the center of the table withdrew and a holographic image of the enemy stealth ship then appeared. He pointed at it and began speaking.
“We are being actively trailed and tracked by this ship,” John paused, “Naval Intelligence hasn’t released this information to the fleet because it wasn’t thought that they could track our ships. The Alliance has their own stealth vessels that serve a similar purpose.”
Deniz slammed his fist into the table, “And they wouldn’t be if the fucking station crew did their bloody jobs.”
“Chief let’s let the lieutenant finish his presentation before we interject,” Kory said softly but firmly.
“This is a CVS-1 class stealth corvette. I won’t bore you with their capabilities, partially because we don’t know all of them, but in general, it doesn’t matter. Because of our leaky cores, we are broadcasting our position for anyone with sensitive enough scanners.”
John paused to take a small drink of water, “It was presumed that their scanners would not be able to detect the energy leaks our wing is suffering from. The band-aid we put together was too little too late since they already knew what to look for.”
“Apologies for interrupting, but do you know why they’d be able to find us with the patch?” Kelly asked.
“Well, the chief may be able to give a more technical answer, but essentially their scanners were basically able to hear me screaming at the top of my lungs. They know what I sound like so when they hone them in more tightly, they can find me talking normally.”
Kory leaned back in his chair and looked at the ceiling, “Fuck. It’s a safe assumption to make that we know their sensor package is at least sensitive enough to pick us up as we are now,” he sighed and looked at the chief, “Deniz, can we do anything to patch it farther?”
“At a station? Sure. Out here though, I doubt it.”
Hugo noticed John wanted to say something, “What’s on your mind Lieutenant?”
“They know what we sound like. What if we were made to sound differently?”
“I don’t follow,” Kelly said.
Kory on the other hand knew what John was suggesting, “You are asking the chief engineer to purposefully run his ship dirty. Takes balls to do that.”
Deniz smirked and slapped John’s shoulder, “But I suspect you know what will if we do that?”
“Our stealth systems may not function as we intend them to. I think the trick here is to dirty things up enough to change that signal but not directly affect those systems,” John paused, “I think we can start working on the theoretical modifications here and now. But I wouldn’t want to implement any of these in hostile territory. Not while eyes are on us. If it works, we might even manage to make ourselves a little stealthier than we are now.”
“Hugo, does CNC need the lieutenant’s services in the interim?” Kory asked.
Hugo shrugged, “If we do, we can always bring him back home.”
“Well lieutenant, consider yourself temporarily transferred to engineering.”
Deniz stood up, “Let’s get to work. The Sooner we have a plan the better we are. I hate being in this position.”
Kory nodded which caused John to stand up and follow the chief engineer out of the room. Kelly appeared to be more awake. Hugo just sat back in his chair, knowing full well something stupid was about to happen.
“Was he ordered to use resources and contact the other ships in the wing?” Kelly asked.
Hugo shook his head, “No he wasn’t. But are you suggesting that we make him run all his ideas through us first? Would any of you ask your COs first for permission to investigate this?”
“Then he wasn’t specifically cleared to speak to the other ships?” Kory asked.
“He’s in CNC, it’s understood that communications between ships may be necessary during normal operations. This was the logical expansion of a task they were already working on,” Hugo leaned forward and rested his arms on the table, “If either one of you wants to take him to task for this, I will fight you over that. This does not warrant sanctions. That we’re even having this conversation is astounding, the lieutenant literally just determined we’re being observed in enemy territory.”
“Why are you defending him?” Kelly asked.
“Am I excused, sir?” Hugo said angrily as he looked at Kory.
The commander nodded. Hugo stood up quickly and walked out the door, no longer wanting to be a part of the conversation. Kelly looked on in surprised amazement. That he was not on their side was surprising.
“What the hell was his problem?” Kelly said after the door closed.
“He’s taking command of the Des Moines after this deployment. Thus, he’s not coming with us to the new ship,” Kory said flatly, “It’s pretty obvious he views John in the same way Deniz does. He doesn’t share our ‘elitist’ beliefs.”
“Elitist? What the hell is he going on about?” Kelly spat, “I can think of at least three regs he violated today.”
Kory shook his head, “Minor regs, which wouldn’t even be considered by the review board. Besides Hugo is right to say that this was a natural progression to work that they were already undertaken.”
Kelly looked at the table, “Unless we can get him on something major then it’s a don’t bother situation?”
“I don’t think you appreciate his intelligence, nor his perfect understanding of the regs,” Kory said as he shut the display screen off, “He has an eidetic memory. Perfect recall of anything he’s looked at. He reads at a frenetic pace, and he needs less sleep and food than anyone else.”
“Then that means he’s a plus? Big deal.”
Kory shook his head, “Superior to be exact, and if the rumors I’ve heard are true, one of the most advanced humans at the genetic level. Look, unless he does something big don’t bother. He also has a strong argument for doing something for the greater good, which the higher-ups would accept as a defense, especially in our situation.”
“What about entrapping him?” Kelly said nonchalantly.
“No, I neither need nor want you or anyone else to do anything unlawful to get him to commit a bad act. He will sniff that out,” Kory said firmly while pointing his finger at her, “And don’t try to seduce him either. For one, you’re not his type.”
“I can make men putty in my hands.”
“Not with me you haven’t. He has eyes for one woman, and only one woman by the way. You aren’t his wife,” Kory leaned forward in his seat, “Keep tabs on him though. If he fucks up, then we hammer him. Otherwise, I suggest we just use his abilities to the most and move on afterward. Then we won’t have to deal with him again on the new ship.”
“Very well. I’ll play along.”
“Let’s stow this talk in front of the others. I don’t want this coming back to anyone that doesn’t share our beliefs.”
08:30 35 CNS Des Moines – Rec Room
John had his feet resting on the coffee table as he sunk into the comfortable black leather couch. Billy was on the other side of the couch and was effectively a reverse image of John. They were watching a cricket match being held on Manchester.
“Ooh, cricket. I loved going to matches with my dad when I was little,” Beth said as she sat down in a chair, “Where’d you end going for the rest of your shift John?”
“Engineering. We’re trying to figure out how to unfuck our engines,” John chuckled to himself, “I have no damn clue what in the hell is going on here.”
“How is that going by the way?” Billy asked.
“Well, it’s all theoretical, but I caused three core explosions and one breach.”
“Very poorly then,” Beth said with a laugh.
“We got time at least,” John shrugged, “Ooh, that was a wicked catch.”
“Where are we headed next?” Billy asked.
“Either Lalande Minor or Grammaticus. Probably avoiding any populated system until the engine shenanigans
are resolved or patched. We don’t need to be waylaid by a local defense fleet or worse.”
“Has First Fleet even been in any direct engagements?” Beth asked.
“Nah. Besides the first attack and our ‘liberating’ a system it’s been all cloak and daggers,” Billy said.
“Yeah, pot shots here or there,” John was transfixed on the cricket match, “No actual proper fleet engagement. I don’t think either side is willing to risk losing any ships. The stakes are just too damn low.”
Beth looked surprised, “But we aren’t technically at war. So why would there be large-scale assaults?”
“Part of it is they took a system from us that was, or rather is, a waste of money for us. Hell, the Union didn’t even want it and I feel like we kinda got scammed when they traded it to us,” John was laughing.
“My dad told me stories about the last war. We won but we absolutely instigated it,” Billy said.
“Kinda?” John grunted, “No we full-on forced them into a corner and that was the only thing they could do is fight back. Despite what the history books and all the Confederate propaganda and analyst say, we forced their hand.”
“This time is different though. They’ve been poking and prodding us for a reaction, but nothing’s happened yet,” Beth caught herself, “Well, I mean except for that whole annexation thing.”
“Man, I had you figured for being all gung-ho, we’re right they are wrong mentality John,” Billy said laughing.
“I am that way, but I have a brain and I can determine for myself whether something is right or wrong,” John shrugged.
“Whelp, the match is over. I still have no bloody clue what happened but man that was entertaining,” John said as he climbed out of the couch, “But I need to head to bed. It is going to be a long ass day tomorrow.”
John walked out of the rec room and then headed to his room. He was certain their wing was in trouble the longer they stayed in enemy territory. But as a junior officer, all he could do was recommend and hope those above him had the wisdom to agree with his suggestion. Hopefully, he and the engineering staff on board the vessel would come up with some sort of modification to the engines to hide once more.