“Then you have not yet seen a way to destroy it?” Daerran asked.
“No, I am afraid not. That monster is protected by the most powerful shield that I have ever seen. My own shield can of course be set at the proper frequency and level of power that will make me invisible to scanners by simply absorbing the active scanner signals, and by containing all emissions from the ship itself. The Dreadnought has a shield powerful enough that it contains light, like a black hole, although gravity is not the agent of this process. It is not actually invisible; if it was between you and a planet of a very close star, then you would see that area blacked out by its shields. But it does not reflect or allow light to escape, and that gives it functional invisibility in open space. Scanner invisibility is much more useful. From a defensive standpoint, we are about even.”
“And the offensive standpoint?” Daerran asked. “Can you see it, and can it see you?”
“I do not know. One carrier cannot see another that has its shields at stealth intensity, and I doubt that I could see this Dreadnought. I cannot know whether or not it could see me. Its shields are more powerful, and it might also have the technology to penetrate mine.”
“And what about weapons? This energy-transfer weapon it uses does not seem especially dangerous to me.”
“That is because we have never seen it used at anything more than its most basic level. We use a destructive achronic beam which cuts into the target before the power charge is released in a quick, strong jolt to destroy the object. The Dreadnought uses a benign carrier, and releases its charge in a relatively slow, steady stream. This benign carrier beam does not betray itself on scan, or visually, the way our own bolts do, so the weapon beams cannot betray the location of the ship itself. But I am very certain that the weapon can be stepped up quite a bit in intensity, once firepower is more important than absolute stealth.”
“Then I doubt that our cannons would penetrate that shield,” Daerran said.
“I doubt that even my conversion cannon would be able to penetrate that shield,” the ship added. “I am not certain that I can fight this thing. For that matter, I am not certain that all the carriers together could fight it. It might be easy, and it might be impossible. We need more information.”
“Do you have any recommendations?”
“Only to find it and see what we can see.” She hesitated. “We need a decoy for it to attack, just as Captain Tarrel has so cleverly used decoys against it. Unfortunately, the only decoy that will serve our present need is myself. I must fight it, even knowing that I cannot win and that I will sustain some damage, for the sake of learning what we can.”
“Is it worth damaging one of our few ships for the sake of information?” Daerran asked.
“Is it worth the destruction of a carrier, or worse, trying to fight this thing unprepared?” Trendaessa asked in return. “I am not concerned. I will withdraw before I am severely damaged.” Daerran leaned back in his seat, both sets of his arms crossed on his chest. “Get in touch with Home Base for advisement and tell them what you propose. If they agree, then we will attempt it. Tell them also that we will be moving to intercept the Dreadnought now, and to send their reply there. Do you have any clear idea where to look?”
“I do see the pattern in its movement,” the ship confirmed. “This machine really is not very clever. I know exactly where to look.”
Daerran nodded, then turned to Tarrel. “Captain, we have to release your ship to prepare the Kerridayen for battle. I can put your ship out here, or when we reach our destination. But I invite you to stay with us as an observer and adviser. I warn you that the ride will be rough.”
Tarrel nodded. “Thank you. I believe that I would like to go along, but I would like to send the Carthaginian back to Vinthra now and have my first officer advise Sector Commander Lake of our progress.”
She hurried back to her own ship, knowing that the Kerridayen was delaying her own flight for her. She still needed to pack, uncertain just how long she would be among the Starwolves. And she wanted warm clothes; having asked, she had been told that they preferred a fairly cool environment to counteract the greater heat their fierce metabolism produced. She meant to compose a very hasty report, relay her instructions to Chagin, and send the Carthaginian on her way. The prospect of being aboard a Starwolf carrier during a major battle was an exciting and rather intimidating matter indeed. Lt. Commander Pesca ran to match her determined stride as they hurried down the long boarding tube.
She glanced at him over her shoulder. “Are you planning to stay with me?”
“That is my assigned mission, Captain,” he said. “Is there some reason why I should not stay?”
“No, as long as you keep quiet and out of the way.” She glanced at him a second time. “How are the language lessons going so far, Wally?”
Pesca frowned fiercely. “I have yet to hear a single one of them speaking their own language. Even their monitors had been converted to read Terran. They plan to keep their secrets.”
“Then is there any reason to come along?”
“They have to let something slip eventually,” he insisted. “Besides, you need at least one person about who has to do what you tell him.”
Pert boy!
Kerridayen moved into the system cautiously, her hull shields at stealth intensity. She made her changes of speed slowly, braking herself with her forward main drives as little as possible to contain their energy emissions. The Dreadnought’s apparently slow changes of speed and direction during its previous attacks suggested that it employed very much the same tactic. The objective of this first round was to attempt to determine whether the alien ship could hide itself from Starwolf scanners — something they did expect — and see if it could see the Kerridayen even with her shields hiding her — something no one could guess. Whatever happened next would depend upon the results of this experiment. If the Dreadnought saw and attacked the carrier, they would have to fight immediately. If not, they would eventually have to show themselves. Trendaessa assumed that the enemy was here, but she could not be absolutely certain unless it attacked.
“Either the Dreadnought has been here already, or else this entire system has been closed down completely,” Trendaessa said. “There is not a single drive or major power source in operation anywhere in nearby space. However, I do detect unexplained radiation residues, suggesting the explosion of conversion generators. I wish that I could tell you more, but active scanner signals would give away our position.”
‘‘Take us in closer toward the inhabited planet,” Daerran said. “If we do not find the station, then we know that the Dreadnought has been here. ”
“Right now, we could use just one more of those drones I had a few days ago,” Captain Tarrel remarked. She had been given a jump seat installed on the upper bridge, specially padded to protect her from the hard accelerations that the Starwolves considered normal.
“Yes, that is an idea.” Trendaessa brought her camera pod into the upper bridge. “I could release one of my drones and have it run through the system. If the Dreadnought is here, it will snap at that bait.”
“That would also give us the opportunity to observe its attack from a safe distance,” Daerran agreed. He turned to Tarrel. “Captain, how long should we expect to have, assuming it can see us?”