The viewscreen cleared and Captain Spitzer could see the ruddy glow of weak red dwarf and the waystation that orbited it, Stjernmark. It was one of the smaller stations that existed, but by no means one fated to mothballs or scrap. It was rather slated to grow, a strong stepping stone between Wisingsö orbiting Vega and the Earth Defense stations orbiting Altair. She looked at it, her face grim. Dimly, in the wings of her mind, she hoped that it would have time to grow, to prosper.
She stepped forward from her chair and stood next to the railing of the wheel well. She idly fished up the speaking tube and began speaking to Jimmy. “How did our test options fare, Jimmy?”
He didn’t immediately respond, and she gestured to Aquico, who knowingly keyed up the video feeds of Engineering, showing a flurry of activity. At last, Jimmy’s face jumped into view, eclipsing everything else in view and making most of the bridge crew cringe back until the camera redirected and gave a more favorable view of the Scotsman.
“Captain. Ye cannae expect us to have our readings completed so quickly after the transition. We’re working as quickly as we can, and all readings would suggest that the vines supplied by our Queliquot guest have done their job, and grown and integrated into the ship’s systems. They’ve done so well that we’re going to have to cut back on the mechanical oxygen production.”
Captain Spitzer frowned. “I can understand that this would be some new calibrations, Jimmy, but it strikes me that you don’t like the changes that have occurred.”
He shrugged. “I’m no botanist, Captain. I’ve a hard time with any thing that I cannae take apart and put back together in functional working order with my two hands and the tools I have.” He shrugged. “We’re currently trying to discover the necessary requirements of the vines with regard to water and other essentials, so we may very soon find that we need to bind that oxygen with hydrogen anyway. We’ll o’course keep you posted, but I don’t expect to be worrying about those sort of things in any near-term timeframe.”
He keyed some keys on the main console of Engineering and the views flashed to the viewscreen on the bridge. “As you can see, captain, there are some other changes that have been made by our Engineering team that will need review before we make the next transition to Tripolitanika.”
She looked at Jimmy and pursed her lips. “Just how long would you need, Jimmy?”
He raised his chin. “I can have the work done for ye in about an hour, two at the most.”
Captain Spitzer took a breath, and fixed the Scotsman with a glare. “Make it an hour, Jimmy. We can’t wait and lose that time.”
Jimmy colored, but nodded. “Aye, Captain, I’ll get it completed in the time you allow.”
The screen went blank, reverting to the starview, when a window appeared in the corner of the viewscreen, overlaying the external view. In it, Van appeared and stood at attention, seemingly looking at Captain Spitzer. She looked at him, and at Aquico. “Lieutenant Star Commander Yamamoto, I believe your Ensign needs to speak with you.”
Aquico smiled and turned to the Captain. “Actually, ma’am, I’ve been discussing something with him and feel it bears hearing by the bridge crew. As Star Ensign Vanguard is more personally acquainted with the technologies involved, I felt he might do better at explaining.”
Captain Spitzer and the rest of the bridge crew turned their attention to the projection on the screen, who sketched a bow. “Thank you, Captain, and all the rest of you. In my experiences serving aboard the Vanguard in my home universe, I had the opportunity to review the teachings of Sun Tzu – a man who I find had very much the same points of view in your universe. One of his sayings runs, ‘We may take it then that an army without its baggage-train is lost; without provisions it is lost; without bases of supply it is lost.’ As you can see the parallel, our attackers are much the same, and with careful effort on our part, we may well be able to do as Sun Tzu says, and cut them from their supply lines, and further secure our victory.”
Captain Spitzer nodded. “A well worn quote, but tell me, Ensign Vanguard, just how do you suggest that we block them from their supply lines? We know that they are quite adept at forage, and they can also disable our ships at will before transiting onward.”
Van nodded. “Captain, you are correct, we have been disabled by them in the past. With the modifications we have made, with the QuiSissriqa vines and the other modifications involving the Distortion Drive, we have helped to shield our ships and we should likely be much less affected by the graviton flux, if at all. It is time, Captain, that we go on the offensive.” He pointed to the screen where the transitional vanes of the Vanguard were shown from a top-down view. “By cycling the refresh rates of the vanes, Captain, we can create a standing wave that would amplify, especially with other Starmada vessels nearby. This standing wave is something that we were able to use with some great success against the Neobritish in my home universe. This standing wave prevents them from transiting or using the transitional radio. We called it the Quicksand maneuver.” He clasped his hands. “We only used it on our Distortion drives because we didn’t have Transit, but I believe that with some minor adjustments, we can do the same thing, and with minimal testing while we wait for the Plasmoids.”
Captain Spitzer looked at Aquico. “Well?”
Aquico smiled. “From all that I understand, I think it would be safe to say that this could be a very useful device against the Plasmoids. We can test when we are reunited with the fleet at Sol.”
“Does it leave us vulnerable in some way?” Captain Spitzer looked at her Science Officer and her newly sworn in Ensign. Both of them were silent for a moment, and then Van spoke. “Not to my knowledge, Captain. I don’t think that it will. That’s why I want to test it when we get to Sol.”
Captain Spitzer looked at the two of them. “What does Jimmy say?”
Jimmy’s picture flashed to the screen. “Captain, you know me – I’m reticent to try anything untested. I will tell you that I’ve still got my dander up about this, but with Van’s experience with our systems, with his personal knowledge, as it were, and with the other option being a heavy rebuild such as we’ve just completed, I’ll side with the dough-heided chanty-wrassler and his mother.”
Captain Spitzer frowned. “Do it. While we’re waiting for Jimmy and his team to finish there testing and results collation, let’s extend the phlogiston collectors and top up to full so we’re ready for anything once we get to Earth. Set course. I want to leave the minute we’re topped up, or Jimmy’s done, whichever comes first.”
