Phantom chapter 1 (standard:science fiction, 1897 words) [1/5] show all parts
Author: St George	Added: Mar 12 2003	Views/Reads: 3347/2103	Part vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
The tiny SNS Phantom sets out on a mission to prove that the smallest ship in the fleet is also the most deadly. This is the second part of the story of the Furie war.

Click here to read the first 75 lines of the story

numerous doors and junctions, every 50 metres there was a slot in the 
ceiling from which an emergency door could descend to contain fire or 
hull breach and to strengthen structural integrity. This corridor was 
on deck fourteen of twenty-eight and terminated at the entry to the 
bridge. 

When she reached the bridge the tanker had already retreated and she
gave the order to move off. They first had to dock with SNI Aeries to 
embark the rest of the crew, there being only 22 of the 360 strong crew 
currently aboard. Archer didn't feel a thing as the ion drive powered 
up and the vessel began to move. Phantom was equipped with inertial 
stabilizers rated for a ship with four times her mass, all part of her 
highly specialized role. Once boarding was completed and Phantom had 
reached minimum safe distance from other traffic Archer ordered her 
into hyperspace; this is where Phantom started to differ from normal 
human or Anduril vessels. 

Normally, to enter hyperspace a vessel must use a hyperdrive actuator
unit (shortened to hyperdrive) to charge a portal projector and then 
use the portal projector to generate a portal; the vessel must then 
move through the portal. All this takes time. Phantom had no portal 
projector and no hyperdrive activator unit: instead she had a brand new 
human invention called a hyperdrive motivator unit. When activated, the 
motivator unit creates an artificial spherical bubble of hyperspace 
around the ship, this bubble is then ‘sucked' into natural hyperspace 
dragging the ship with it. The advantage of this system is that the 
ship can enter and leave hyperspace very quickly, and because there is 
no portal to move through, the vessel can hyperjump even if its engines 
are offline. The disadvantages are size and mass: the motivator uses 
more energy than the actuator and so there is a practical limit on ship 
size that can employ a motivator; secondly the unit is considerably 
less stable, hence the sentient computer aboard the Phantom. 

Impressive though it was the motivator wasn't what made Phantom one of
the most deadly ships in the alliance. Nor was it the Stealth shroud 
which reduced the ion drive's visual/EM signature to just one quarter 
of that of a similar unshrouded ion drive at the cost of a few percent 
thrust. 

Extract from Captain's log first entry: “We're en route to Bernard's
star, the traditional stellar navy testing grounds, where we will meet 
with an Anduril destroyer for proving. I'm told that the Anduril crew 
is experienced and has an admirable record. I'm a submariner by 
training and that's one of the reasons I was chosen for this command. 
For our first, albeit simulated, battle I am to face a destroyer ... 
long time foe of those beneath the waves.” 

During the passage Archer spent her time familiarizing herself with her
ship and crew. There were many experienced people on board and about 
two thirds were ex submariners like her; it was felt that if anyone 
would have an insight into how to operate a vessel such as Phantom they 
would. 

In order to re-enter real space the motivator unit is simply run in
reverse, creating a bubble of real space and dragging the ship out of 
hyperspace. As soon as this operation was completed (in considerably 
less time than a normal ship would take) Archer demanded, “Any sign of 
them?” “No Captain,” came the reply. The holoscape in front of her bore 
this out. Good, they were playing by the rules. The Anduril destroyer 
was scheduled to arrive in 20 minutes time. She stood up, this was the 
moment, this was what made Phantom so special. “Activate the EH 
shield!” There weren't any outside observers but if there had been they 
would have seen a remarkable sight. Human scientists working on the 
hyperdrive motivator had realised that when the unit is dragging a ship 
into real space, for a fraction of a second the bubble bends spacetime 
around itself and the ship is invisible! The EH shield replicates this. 
Using a modified form of the graviton projectors used on the new 
interdictor cruisers to bend spacetime into a more stable bubble, the 
ship was rendered invisible. All forms of energy will simply pass 
around the bubble including light, EM radiation and crucially EP bolts 
and pulses; matter however is unaffected, so a torpedo for instance 
will still impact the vessel. Similarly, from inside the shield it is 
impossible to send energy transmissions to the outside without 
destabilising the field, therefore navigation must rely on dead 
reckoning. 

In order to overcome these limitations the EH shield on Phantom had been
designed in two sections: one covered 98% of the ship's hull, the other 
covered only a small section. If the smaller section of the shield was 
deactivated it made a tiny hole in the bubble through which a mast 
could be extended, mounted on this mast was a telescope, a radar 
scanner, an epdar array, a GCD array and a radio/esm antenna. In this 
way Phantom could observe whilst minimising the risk of being observed. 
The system was not perfect of course. The EH shield did not hide 
Phantom's passive epdar signature (nor prevent her using her own 
passive epdar array), this was another reason that she was so small. 
Her size meant that she needed only very light etheric masses which 
meant that as long as she didn't go too fast she had an excellent 
chance of escaping detection. The biggest problem with the EH system 
was power consumption; if all unnecessary systems were shut down 
(leaving only life support, EH and engines) then the fuel-hydrogen 
supply was sufficient for 27 hours, after this time the EH must be 
deactivated so the ramscoop can collect more hydrogen. The only 
physical thing the EH couldn't hide was the trail of ions left in the 
wake when using a normal ion drive for propulsion, but that had been 
considered. 

Almost everyone felt out of their depth with First Lieutenant Murdoch
for the very good reason that almost everyone was. Built like some 
latter-day titan, 6'10” and muscular with it, it would be easy to 
underestimate his mind, but this was every bit as impressive. It was 
his mind which had conceived the hyperspatial propulsion manifold, 
otherwise known as ion turbines. When his duties as Chief Engineer 
allowed, he could be found stalking proprietarily up and down the long 
catwalk that was suspended between the two massive ion turbines, each 
of which was capable of generating six kilotons of thrust, without 
leaving behind a tell-tale ion wake. They did this by accelerating 
hydrogen ions with a magnetic turbine and then firing them through a 
micro portal into hyperspace, made possible only thanks to the 
motivator. The turbines were unnecessary when in hyperspace as the 
normal ion drive wake was impossible to detect, however in real space 
the ion drive was shut down and the twin turbines activated. 


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