''Could they fire their lasers from inside that lash-up?''
''Not sure I'd recommend it.''
''How about a short, very low-power stutter burst to knock a hole where you want it, then a full power burst through that hole? I did a low-power burst on…'' Right, her shoots were not in the history books, yet. ''Well, I've dialed pulse lasers way down and used them that way.''
''Hardware's not designed for that.''
''I did software mods. On the fly. Certainly you could do some with two days' warning.''
''And test them, debug them, document them.'' Roy sighed. ''Oh, I hate dealing with software engineers. Especially when I have to tell them all we have is two days to do it in.''
''I could have Nelly do it before close of business today,'' Kris said.
I COULD HAVE IT DONE IN FIVE MINUTES, IF I HAD ACCESS TO THE SHIP SYSTEMS. WHAT DO YOU THINK I AM, AN ABACUS?
I KNOW, NELLY, BUT LET'S NOT EMBARRASS TOO MANY PEOPLE.
YOU HUMANS AND YOUR FEELINGS.
Now Roy was grinning from ear to ear. ''That might be fun. Challenge my software engineers to a race, them versus your computer. But no. Not a good idea. I'll have to work with those guys long after you've sailed off into the sunset. Very bad idea. But it would be fun. Oh Lord, but I'm gonna be in trouble.''
He glanced back at his engineers. Another explosion was taking place in slow motion. Yes. Yes. No. The ship got nicked, then slammed, then the power barge bounced a girder and drove it through the bridge. Ugly picture.
''What a choice. Either these folks have to come up with something, or the software engineers. Looks like I'm damned either way.''
''What if you kept the false ship pretty much in one piece.'' A small voice came from around Kris's neck. ''Blew the attachment points gently, and backed the yacht out of the cocoon?''
''What did you say, Kris?''
''You're talking to Nelly, Roy.''
''Do you have to blow up the false ship?'' Nelly asked. ''Why not leave it mostly in one piece? Small explosions might detach it. Then, if the yacht fired short retro blasts, the false front would go on at its existing vector, and the yacht would slow. Then it could set out on its own course.''
''That's what we've been trying to do. It's not as easy as it seems. The charges keep doing more than we want. The attachments have to be solid enough to take the pounding we're gonna give them during the fight. That rig's going to be knocked around quite a bit. It takes major explosives to separate it.''
''But properly placed, they don't have to create that big a mess, that many conflicting vectors,'' Nelly came back.
Kris suspected this discussion could go on for quite a while. ''Ah, Roy, I've set up a sixteen hundred meeting on the dock beside the Cushing for the PF skippers. There will probably be an oh eight hundred one as well. We might also want to set one up thirty minutes later for the armed yacht skippers and the Navy OIC aboard. I understand the Navy's actually been moved off the decoys and into the yachts. These get-togethers would let everyone know what's going on in their work.''
''Oh, right, yeah, we are moving the Navy workstations onto the yachts. Guess we haven't told everyone.''
''We can do that at the stand-up meetings.''
''Right. Nelly, you have any suggestions for size of explosions and placement?''
''I would need to see your plans for supports.''
''Right. Hmm. No easy way to break that to the engineering staff. Let me get back to you at the four o'clock thing.''
''I will be there if Kris is,'' Nelly said.
NELLY, TRANSMIT ALL THIS REAL TIME TO TRU.
HOW WOULD THAT NOT PUT SECURITY AT RISK?
RIGHT. THEN MAKE A RECORD AND TRANSMIT IT AS SOON AS IT BECOMES POSSIBLE
YES, MA'AM. DOES THIS BOTHER YOU?
NO, NELLY, IT'S JUST A NEW SIDE OF YOU THAT WE HAVEN'T SEEN BEFORE AND I EXPECT WILL TICKLE TRU'S FANCY.
I THINK IT IS FUN TO TICKLE TRU'S FANCY.
SO IT SEEMS.
The Halsey was last on Kris's list, but she made a stop by the 109 first. The yard folks had fully occupied the engine room. Tom was back on the bridge, giving what help he could to Penny's effort to connect the intel station to the sensors.
''Maybe string and two tin cans?'' Penny sighed.
''Maybe we need to bring in some expert help,'' Kris said.
''More yard workers?'' Tom asked, still no grin in sight.
''No, I think there's a tech on the Halsey that might put all of us to shame,'' Kris said. ''A nerd who loves black boxes like a good friend of mine,'' she said, giving Tom an elbow in the ribs.
''This tech nerd on the Halsey sounds like someone I'd like to meet,'' Tom said, his grin starting to come out of hiding.
''If he or she can make my station talk to this tub's sensor suite, I want in on the talks, too,'' Penny said, pushing herself away from the recalcitrant station.
''Strangely enough, the Halsey's CIC was next on my ramble,'' Kris said and led the way.
No surprise, Kris found Sandy leaning over the battle board. ''How's it going?'' Kris asked what was becoming her one-question-fits-all greeting.
The destroyer skipper shrugged but didn't take her eyes off the board. ''It's a crapshoot. Do we attack early, dive straight at them as we come out of the moon's shadow? Or do we come along beside them, let them shoot at us for a while at long range? Note that they will be shooting at us. Their battlewagons have the range for the shoot. We don't.''
''Sounds like you just answered your own question. No reason to stay in their range any longer than we have to,'' Kris said.
''But if we come charging straight at them, it kind of shows our hand, doesn't it?'' Tom said.
''That's why I don't want to do it.'' Sandy nodded.
''But our hand is kind of weak,'' Kris said.
''Weak, yes, but do we want them to know it? Battles aren't so much won by the brilliant choices of the winner as lost by the dumb mistakes of the losers. I hope that doesn't shock you, Longknife.''
''I've been kind of suspecting that,'' Kris said dryly.
''I'm shocked,'' Tom said, grin lopsided as could be.
''I'm shocked,'' Penny said, ''that a tin can skipper would be revealing such sacred Navy secrets to lowly junior officers.''
''Think security can afford to lock me in irons for the violation, Lieutenant Lien?'' Sandy asked.
Penny preened at her new name and shook her head.
''So,'' Sandy went on slowly, ''if we did a slow approach until we got into long-range laser fire, let them get in the first shots, and then turned things loose…''
''We'd have more time to study their formation,'' Penny said, giving the intel officer's take on the tactical problem.
''And they'd be doing the same to us,'' Kris pointed out.
''And wouldn't the both of us be doing our best to lie, lie, lie to each other,'' Tom concluded in full brogue.
''So who will do the better job?'' Kris asked.
''What are our decoys going to be sending?'' Sandy asked.
''I'd thought we'd pass them off as light cruisers, dragged out of mothballs. We were supposed to have sent everything we had to Boynton. It was on all the talk shows,'' Kris answered. ''But Roy says we can have any size false front put on the yacht lash-up. How big we want to fake?''
Sandy rubbed the bridge of her nose thoughtfully. Tom started talking first. ''What if we started out making the noises like something smaller, but as we got closer, started ‘leaking' something bigger. After we got caught up in those fights on Olympia, my great-grandmum told me that things weren't always so peaceful on Santa Maria. During the starving times for the first hundred years after the lost ship's crew tried to make a go of it settling on Santa Maria, well, not everyone was willing to go hungry. Some went bad. Went to the hills as bandits. That's not something we kids got told in school.