Chapter 6. Shakedown Cruise.
---
Sabat Scar stood at her station in Moonless Night's reactor room while holding a datapad. "Any time now." She thought.
NENG NENG NENG NENG
"Crew pay attention."
"Combat stations! Combat stations! Combat stations! All crew to their combat stations!" A recorded voice broadcast from the broadcast system's loudspeakers.
"And here we go." She thought.
Together with Lunar Eclipse and New Moon, Moonless Night had undocked from Mezan's orbital shipyard a few hours ago to start her shakedown cruise and her Torret had just given the order for the first general quarters drill.
Scar knew what was happening outside the reactor room now. New crew, civvies, former warriors, new ship. She smiled. She remembered her first general quarters drill aboard Desert Wind, a destroyer. She had gotten lost, bumped into several crew members, fallen, and hit her head.
"Happy times." She thought.
It took some time before the last member of the reactor crew came running in and took her place at her station. Everytime a member entered, Scar pressed a button on her pad.
Several bimas passed.
TeeEEeet! "Crew pay attention." The recorded voice sounded. It was followed by Wildfire's voice.
"Crew, this is your Torret. It only took you almost nine bimas to get to your combat stations. By this time, even a raider armed with nothing more than a slingshot would have nova'd us. Before I am through with you, it will take you no longer than thirty-two solons. And I will give you hell until you do. That is all. Carry on."
---
"Well. It could be worse." Delota Emery sent to Wildfire, after she had arrived on the bridge with the results of the drill. "Almost nine bimas for the first time isn't too bad for a crew like ours."
"It wouldn't be if it was one of the civilians or even former warriors that had arrived at her station last. But it wasn't." Wildfire sent back while handing Emery back her pad.
Emery read the names again. "I'll inform them that if they are last again next time, I'll order them to cut off an inch of their hair and stand in the dining room for a few hours while holding the clippings."
"Please do." Wildfire sent. "Oh and remind the crew that the direction of travel is up and forward on their port side and down and aft on their starboard side. We have two people in medbay with a concussion after they banged heads. The corridors are quite a bit narrower than we're used to, so it's important that we learn how to deal with that."
Emery nodded and left the bridge. Delivering the bad and unpopular news was part of the executive officer's job.
"Well then... Let's start with the first item on the list. The maneuvering thrusters." Wildfire thought. She pressed the button of the broadcast system on her station.
TeeEEeet! "Crew pay attention."
"Crew, this is your Torret. We will start testing the maneuvering thrusters in thirty-two bimas. Stow and secure everything. And strap yourselves in. Just in case. That is all."
"COM, send FRB to Lunar Eclipse and New Moon to inform them that we're going to test the thrusters in thirty-two bimas."
The Soroin at the communications station confirmed reception of the order and sent the ultrashort, encoded message.
Having near perfect stealth meant that Moonless Night and her sister ships were invisible to an enemy. This was a good thing. But it also meant that they were invisible to each other. This could be a bad thing. A very bad thing when operating in close proximity to one another.
To prevent collisions, coordinate attacks, report one's position, inform about changes in course and speed and for other reasons, the ships could send extremely short and highly encoded messages that could easily be mistaken for fast radio bursts, a natural phenomenon.
To reduce the risk of detection even further, these so called FRB transmissions were -whenever possible- sent in a cone to a recipients expected or suspected position. Omnidirectional transmissions were only used when the location of a recipient was unknown. Transmitting at regular intervals was also avoided as much as possible.
---
The thirty-two bimas had passed. Wildfire sent another announcement to the crew and gave the order to New Moon's pilot to begin the test procedure.
"NAV, cut engine and begin testing the thrusters according to the instructions that the shipyard provided. After that, if everything has gone well, feel free to go all out." Wildfire sent to the Tenoin who was steering the ship.
Forty-three bimas later, Moonless Night had completed her graceful, invisible dance without a single hiccup.
"What was it that Coldstone said she was going to play through New Moon's broadcast system during this test?" Wildfire thought. "Some human music called something something Danube." She shook her head.
The reactor and engine tests that followed were also completed without any problems. Only some calibration and adjustment issues surfaced, but that was to be expected.
Wildfire received a sending from Delota Emery from one of the compartments behind the bridge. "Torret, some of the crew have begun to relax..."
"Oh, have they now?" Wildfire sent back.
NENG NENG NENG NENG
"Crew pay attention."
"Combat stations! Combat stations! Combat stations! All crew to their combat stations!"
Several bimas later Wildfire handed Emery back her pad again. "Better. Only four bimas this time and nobody in medbay. But unfortunately one haircut."
Emery took out a pair of scissors and left the bridge.
"Emery, those scissors look an awful lot like the ones in your memories." Wildfire sent. "You know, the ones you used to..." Wildfire made snipping gestures with her fingers.
"They're different ones, unfortunately." Emery sent back. "But they are the same brand and type as the ones I used to..." Emery also made snipping gestures with her fingers.
Twenty bimas later, the next shift came on duty and Wildfire retired to her cabin after handing the conn to the pilot at NAV.
She came back a couple of hours later when Moonless Night approached Deinar's jump zone to Perrein, the system where the stealth and weapons tests would be conducted. Wildfire informed the crew that they were about to test the jumpdrive and make the first jump of the voyage.
There was a slight "bump" sound during the transition that was unfamiliar to Wildfire.
"Torret, alarm triggered on sub deck 1, Frame 15, port side. The water recycling facility. Flooding." Sent the Gallen from the ENV station.
The call from the water recycling plant itself came almost immediately after. "Bridge, Water Recycling. We have a spill. Looking into the matter right now."
"And there's issue number one on the list." Wildfire thought.
"Bridge, EYE. Multiple contacts, bearing 15, positive 25. Range 0.5 light solons. Their transponder signals identify them as our targets." The bow sensor operator in the adjacent sensor room reported.
The Listel at SIT confirmed what her fellow Listel at EYE had sent. Meanwhile two more distant groups of contacts appeared and identified themselves on the bridge's tactical display and on the tactical screen of the SIT station.
"Bridge, Water Recycling. One of the main water tanks broke loose from its mountings during the jump and got disconnected from the pipes. We spilled around 300 litres before we managed to close the shut-off valves. No further damage than a dented tank and no danger of short circuits, but we need time to clean up the spill and secure the tank."
"A tank came undone?" Wildfire thought. "A connection is one thing. But an entire tank? ENV, Inform engineering that I want every tank aboard this ship checked. And I want a report of the incident and of engineering's other findings. We don't want the black water tank to go next."
"Jump flash! Dead ahead, range... fourty-five light solons, near the second target group" The Listel at the SIT station sent.
Wildfire switched to her own SIT interface. CON1 had one, so it could serve as a backup for the SIT station in case of a malfunction. A number of stations on the bridge possessed such backup functionalities.
"Torret, incoming FRB from New Moon. Succesful jump-in. No additional info." COM reported fourty solons after reporting the jump flash.
Another Jump flash call from SIT followed less than 5 solons later. "Bearing 5, positive 3 and at a distance of 92 light solons, near the third target group."
This time it took more than five bimas before COM received the transmission from Lunar Eclipse. "Torret, FRB from Lunar Eclipse. Succesful jump-in. Additional information reports a "smelly problem" with one the tanks in Water Recycling."
"Eew." Wildfire thought and sent an order to ENV. "ENV, tell engineering to double check the black and grey water tanks. And COM, send standard FRB to New Moon and Lunar Eclipse and add info about the incident with our water tank."
"Looks like a structural problem." She thought.
---
After more than 80 bimas had passed, Delota Emery appeared on the bridge with the results of the tank inspections.
She handed Wildfire the pad. "Engineering says that the mountings of the black and grey water tanks in Water Recycling and the two main water tanks have a production flaw. It's likely that the other ships have the same problem." She sent.
"Lunar Eclipse definitely does." Wildfire sent back with the content of Lunar Eclipse's message.
"Eew." Emery sent. "Fortunately, these particular mountings aren't used anywhere else. Only on the tanks in water recycling and the two main water tanks. Engineering can place blocks and jacks to hold the tanks in place, but we should empty them before doing anything wild and jumping back to Mezan. We've done the tests for the engine in continuous mode. Using pulse mode is not advisable when these tanks are heavier than needed."
"Agreed. We should only keep what we really need for this trip." Wildfire sent back and issued a few commands.
"NAV, cut engine and then slowly rotate Z minus 90. After that engage lateral bottom thrusters continuously. We will maintain present course and a heading of minus 90 degrees while continue to accelerate."
"ENV, tell Water Recycling to begin ejecting the contents of the black and grey water tanks in one bima, followed by the contents of the port water tank. Tell them to keep what we really need for the remainder of the cruise in the starboard tank and eject the rest. Report when this is complete."
"COM, send the others an FRB with our findings and measures."
And so Moonless Night began to point her bow "down" without changing her flight direction, activated her belly thrusters continuously to accelerate and did a lengthy no. 1 and no. 2 in space through an opening in her underside.
---
The Navy had set up 3 formations of 5 ships each. One for each of the stealth ships. The ships were moving in a zigzagging pattern on autopilot. The outer four of each formation were equipped with the most recent sensors. These escort ships were circling a fifth -the target- that was located in the center of the tetrahedron formations.
The stealth test consisted of three parts. The first instructed to approach the formation undetected to within a certain range. The second part instructed to hit the center ship with a dummy torpedo that would -ideally- remain undetected or at least fail to be destroyed by one of the ships' operational LACs. And the third part instructed to withdraw, either undetected or without the escort ships having calculated a firing solution.
"SIT, what is the status of the stealth systems?" Wildfire asked.
"Stealth systems are nominal, Torret." The Listel answered.
"POW, what is the railgun's status?"
"Capacitors are ready to charge, Torret." Answered the Gallen who sat at the ship's power monitoring station.
"Torpedo Room, Bridge." Wildfire spoke through the intercom. "We are ready to begin testing the revolver."
"Bridge, Torpedo Room. We are standing by. Revolver is ready. Go ahead."
"WEP, begin loading and unloading the torpedos according to the instructions of the shipyard." Wildfire ordered.
"Yes, Torret." The Tenoin manning the weapons station sent.
12 bimas passed. It went flawless.
"Well then..." Wildfire thought. "But first..."
NENG NENG NENG NENG
"Crew pay attention."
"Combat stations! Combat stations! Combat stations! All crew to their combat stations!"
"92 solon! And no haircuts." Emery sent from another part of the ship.
TeeEEeet! "Crew pay attention."
"Rig for stealth." Wildfire said.
Rigging for stealth meant cutting down on E.M. transmissions. All unnecessary equipment was shut down to prevent accidental leakage of radiation. True, Moonless Night's hull was heavily shielded, but it couldn't hurt.
"SIT, what is your advice on how to best approach and fire without being detected?" Wildfire sent after having observed the target formation for some time on her own SIT interface.
"Torret, the symmetrical nature of the escort formation makes that it has no specific weak spot. And all escort ships carry the latest sensors." The Listel sent. "Approaching the formation shouldn't be a problem, but firing the railgun will give us away momentarily. Even when fired from the maximum range that we are allowed to launch a torpedo from. And launching a torpedo without the railgun will cause the torpedo to become visible because of its exhaust plume."
"I recommend we deploy an inactive decoy buoy, move away from it, activate the buoy to draw the escorts' attention, fire when the buoy has drawn their attention and immediately turn and move away."
"The standard tactic, eh? And what if I told you that the formation has a weakness that we can exploit in a... creative way?" Wildfire asked.
"I don't see it, Torret." The Listel answered.
Wildfire smiled. Cheating was best if she could do it without breaking her orders.
"WEP, deactivate the torpedo's thrusters. Program it to disengage its drive after it has fired for... 0.25 solon. Close the outer torpedo port immediately after it has cleared the tube. Be prepared to fire the exact moment that NAV tells you to. Do not use the railgun. Acknowledge."
"NAV, Torret?" The Tenoin asked.
"Yes, NAV. Repeat the order." Wildfire sent.
WEP did. The Tenoin programmed the torpedo and reported that it was ready.
"NAV, I know that you can maneuver Moonless Night to a position that lies dead astern of and close enough to the position that the target will have after the target formation has completed its next turn. SIT will provide you with the data." Wildfire sent. "And I know that you can start your attack run from that position straight at the target the moment after it has finished its next turn. But do you think that you can do the following?" Wildfire explained the tactic that she had in mind.
The Tenoin at NAV blinked and answered "Torret, I need a few moments to go over that."
"Take your time." Wildfire sent. "That formation isn't going anywhere."
The Listel was staring at Wildfire while frowning. "Torret? That would never work with a live torpedo. We would be destroyed. We could just launch that beacon and..."
"Yes, we could. But where is the challenge in that? Besides, it's conform our orders and it's an excellent test for the bridge crew." Wildfire sent back. "NAV, you have the conn and I'm authorizing you to fire a torpedo. Whenever you're ready."
NAV and SIT began to send to one another while SIT made calculations at her station.
After about 14 bimas of checking and rechecking, NAV slowly began to approach the formation and steered to a point in space that lay well in front of it. NAV then changed Moonless Night's heading.
If NAV and SIT had done their work correctly, Moonless Night's current position now lay dead astern of the position that the target would have after completing its next turn, her heading aligned with the target's new course and her distance such that she could complete Wildfire's manoeuvre.
The formation approached and turned.
"One half degree offset from predicted course. Beginning attack run." NAV sent.
When Moonless Night was still far enough outside the formation to execute the manoeuvre, NAV cut her engine after reaching her intended speed and sent "Fire!" to WEP who immediately launched the torpedo.
The torpedo stopped its burn after 0.25 solon and exited the tube with a speed that wasn't much greater than that of Moonless Night. It closed in on the target using inertia only.
WEP closed the port immediately to prevent the unnecessary leakage of any exhaust gases that might be detected. Simultaneously, NAV used a single stern truster to change Moonless Night's heading.
This was the slow part. It only makes sense that using only a single thruster makes a ship rotate more slowly. But Moonless Night's proximity to the target formation was now such that any residual heat would likely give her away, even when the thruster that was fired was one of the stern thrusters that were designed to remain unseen when viewed from the front. The thruster was therefore only fired at 50 percent of its full power.
Despite that, there should be enough time for the ship's heading to change far enough to start using the lateral thrusters on the side that would be pointing away from the escorts.
There was. NAV fired the lateral thrusters that were now invisible to the escorts and Moonless Night began to veer away sideways. The thrusters were cut and Moonless Night entered the formation.
A moment after she passed the target on inertia inside the formation, she did so at an angle of 72 degrees and with 50 meters or 165 feet clearance. A moment later the torpedo hit the target, though off center.
"Hmm. A bit too far off center, but.. a hit is a hit." Wildfire thought.
Moonless Night exited the formation out its side while remaining completely undetected and with 14 solons to spare before the five ships began making their next turn.
"NAV, SIT, WEP, excellent work. This is the teamwork that I want to see!" Wildfire sent.
"SIT, can you tell me now what the formation's vulnerability was?"
"Perfect predictability, Torret. The changes in course followed a repeating pattern and were executed with extreme accuracy. It was their autopilots."
"Remember that." Wildfire sent.
---
NENG NENG NENG NENG
"Crew pay attention."
"Combat stations! Combat stations! Combat stations! All crew to their combat stations!"
"51 solon. Getting there." Emery sent from somewhere.
TeeEEeet! "Crew pay attention."
"Crew, it took you less than a bima this time to crew your stations. Well done. If it's under 32 solons next time, the crew will receive two days of shore leave and all drinks during the first day will be on me."
After completing the tests that the shipyard's Gallen had prepared for the laser turret and succesfully hitting all the target drones that were launched from the Multi-D launchers, Wildfire had added another problem to the list. The turret had a hiccup everytime it was deployed and retracted.
Sometime after, Moonless Night approached the location where she would jump back to the Deinar system. Wildfire announced the jump over the ship's broadcast system and added that the engine's pulse mode tests would begin 32 bimas after completing the jump.
Twenty minutes after the jump, Emery joined Wildfire on the bridge and strapped herself in at CON2. After every compartment had given a go ahead, Wildfire gave the order to NAV to start the test procedure of the ship's engine in pulse mode.
"0.1 Hz pulse frequency, lowest engine output." NAV reported. "Increasing pulse frequency. 0.2 Hz... 0.3... 0.5... 0.7... 1.0 Hz."
So far so good. Wildfire thought.
"1.5... 2.0... 3.0... 4.0... 5.0..."
A tremor began.
"Here we go..." Wildfire received from Emery.
"6.0..."
Okay... Wildfire thought as the ship began to vibrate.
"7.0..."
The vibration became annoying.
"8.0..."
The vibration became very annoying.
"9.0..."
"Barsam sanctified poopstorm!" Emery shouted.
"NAV, take it down to 5 Hz!" Wildfire sent. "Are the acceleration dampers creating a feedback or something?"
NAV dropped the frequency to a comfortable level.
"Torret, the procedure says to go up to 10 Hz." Nav sent.
"You can do that after dropping us off at the yard." Emery sent back.
"Can I, Delota?" The Tenoin sent. The sanzai actually came with an emotion of hope.
"You fighter pilots really are a unique breed, aren't you?" Emery sent.
"I've experienced worse, Delota. This is fun."
To Emery's and Wildfire's amazement, the pilot's sanzai indicated that she had indeed experienced worse once when she had piloted a severely damaged fighter craft.
The test procedure continued and engine output was steadily increased with every test sequence, until the final one for the engine's maximum output was reached.
"0.1 Hertz..."
With each pulse, the crew was pushed back in their seats, but not much more than normal when accelerating with a conventional engine.
"0.2... 0.3... "
Suddenly they began to notice a difference. Just as Sobatadi Quartz had said, they were beginning to be pushed back harder.
"0.5..."
"That's my stomach." Wildfire sent to Emery.
"0.7..."
"And that's definitely mine and some other things as well." She received from Emery.
"1.0..."
"And those are the kidneys." Both Emery and Wildfire sent.
"1.2... 1.4... 1.5... 1.7..."
"NA NA NAV!"
"Ye es, Tor ret?"
"SHU SHU SHUT!"
"Shu tit do wn, Tor ret?"
"YE YE"
"Are you su re, tor ret?"
"Emery sent an image of a noose and a bloody dagger to NAV."
NAV shut down the engine.
After about 30 solons had passed, Emery unbuckled herself and somewhat unsteadily walked to the Tenoin at NAV. "Well, wasn't that fun? Three days on latrine duty. Under supervision of the Paset who normally do it. And I'm going to hand them my scissors, so you better scrub real hard if you don't want to end up walking around with the most ridiculous haircut they can think of."
And with that, the last test on the list ended.
An hour passed. The crew had recovered from the stunt. And with only seven hours of travel left to the shipyard, it was once again time for another episode of that fine tradition that is part of every warship's shakedown cruise.
NENG NENG NENG NENG
"Crew pay attention."
"Combat stations! Combat stations! Combat stations! All crew to their combat stations!"
"30 solons!" Emery sent after the results appeared on her pad.
TeeEEeet! "Crew pay attention."
"Crew, this is your Torret. It took you only 30 solons to crew your stations. Excellent work. As promised, everyone -even a certain Tenoin- gets two day of shore leave and all drinks on the first day are on me. That is all. Carry on."
"NAV, you have the conn." Wildfire sent. She unbuckled herself and left the bridge together with Emery.
"How can anyone actually endure, nay enjoy that hell?" Asked Wildfire 15 bimas later while sitting in her cabin. She and Emery were busy finalizing the report for the Gallen and planned to retire for a few hours after finishing.
"Don't ask me. You recruited her." Emery responded.
"Yes I did." Sent Wildfire. "I guess now I know why she was named Hellion by her diral."
---
Six hours later Wildfire had returned on the bridge after catching a few hours of sleep.
"Torret, Moonless Night is approaching Mezan's orbital shipyard." NAV sent.
"COM, request docking clearance from the yard. NAV, dock at the yard after receival of clearance." Wildfire sent.
15 bimas later Moonless Night docked at the shipyard next to New Moon and Lunar Eclipse, succesfully completing her shakedown cruise.
---/\/---
Had to do some research for this chapter and found a manual with phraseology used aboard WW2 submarines. Only little of it went into the chapter, because it made for very poor reading material.
A call to quarters is often followed by "the direction of travel is up and forward on your starboard side and down and aft on your port side".
It indicates to stay to the right side of corridors and stairs. But I remember having read that Loroi are generally lefthanded, so I reversed it.
There is room aboard the ships for a Bistima. Her station is in the amplifier room. It is next to the sensor room that holds the 3 sensor and e-war operators. It's nice and quiet there. Until a torpedo is fired. Due to the limited space aboard, her amplifier -when assembled- is smaller and weaker than the ones used on most other ships.
Loroi seem to have an affinity for putting all stations and operators on the Bridge of their ships. There's no C.I.C. for instance.
Station names and their functions.
Amplifier Room.
Station name: BIS
Function: Long range telepathic detection & communication.
Sensor Room.
Station name: EYE1*
Function: Bow Sensors / Stern Sensors
Crewed by a Listel.
Station name: EYE2
Function: Stern Sensors / Bow Sensors
Backup: E-WAR / Multi-D Launchers
Crewed by a Listel.
Station name: EWA
Function: E-WAR / Multi-D Launchers
Backup: EYE All sensors
Crewed by a Listel.
Bridge.
Station name: TOR1*
Function: Command. Torret's seat.
Backup: SIT. Situational Awareness and Tactical / Monitoring Stealth / Status of Stealth Systems.
Station name: TOR2
Function: Command. No. 2's seat.
Backup: ENV. Status of Ship's Internals / Status of Life Support and Secondary Systems / Coordination of Damage Control.
Station name: COM*
Function: Communications.
Crewed by a Soroin.
Station name: NAV1*
Function: Steering / Engine / Flaps
Crewed by a Tenoin.
Station name: NAV2
Function: Engine / Flaps / Steering
Crewed by a Tenoin.
Station name: POW (Two additional POW stations are located on the ship. One in the Reactor Room, the other in the Engine Room).
Function: Status of Power Systems and Power Redirection (Reactor / Engine / Batteries / Fuel / Capacitors / Converters).
Crewed by a Gallen.
Station name: ENV*
Function: Status of Ship's Internals / Life Support and Secondary Ship Systems / Coordination of Damage Control.
Crewed by a Gallen.
Station name: MUL (Backup only)
Backup: COM. Communications.
Backup: POW. Status of Power Systems and Power Redirection. (Reactor / Engine / Batteries / Fuel / Capacitors / Converters.)
Station name: SIT*
Function: Situational Awareness and Tactical / Status of Stealth / Status of Stealth Systems.
Crewed by a Listel.
Station name: WEP1
Function: Torpedoes / Laser / Multi-D Launchers
Crewed by a Tenoin.
Station name: WEP2
Function: Laser / Multi-D Launchers / Torpedoes
Crewed by a Tenoin.
* = Always crewed.
The names of the stations are chosen to sound sufficiently unique to prevent confusion.
In case you think my humor is somewhat over the top sometimes:
Look up the entry for the USS William D. Porter in the first link.
https://www.quora.com/What-naval-warshi ... ing-career
https://www.neatorama.com/2014/04/28/Th ... he-U-1206/
The unfortunate member of the crew who had to stand in the galley while holding her hair clippings is based on a sailor who had to stand in the door opening of an executive officer's cabin while holding a doorknob, after his mates had removed and hidden the door.
(direct image from memory)
(response indicating emotion)
No need to fully quote them. But I'd appreciate some pointers. But I'll try to reread. Tomorrow. 
