Sovereign Chapter 1 (standard:science fiction, 2531 words) [1/3] show all parts
Author: St George	Added: Mar 13 2003	Views/Reads: 3441/2137	Part vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
The final part of the tale of the Furie war, told through the exloits of SNS Royal Sovereign.

SOVEREIGN 

Broadsword was a good ship, no, she was a great ship, but she could not
hold a candle to this, thought Captain Adams. Indeed she was right. 

1,980 metres long, 400 wide, 110,000 tons of space-borne death, the
Sovereign class battle-cruiser was aptly named, a true ruler of space. 
A technological leap from the Sword class medium cruiser she boasted 
4x2 8-kiloton EP turrets, 6x2 5.5-kiloton EP turrets and 8x2 3-kiloton 
EP turrets, this ship had more EP firepower than a battleship. She had 
firepower enough to tangle with the worst the galaxy could offer, and 
right now the galaxy could offer a lot. 

The champagne bottle flew through the vacuum spinning on its axis, far
below the red disc of Mars was visible as background light occluded by 
the black vastness of the Sovereign class ship. Adams watched from an 
observation room on the inside of the skeletal cylinder-shaped 
shipyard. The bottle was quickly lost against the ship but wall-screens 
showed it still. It impacted the bow of the great vessel and 
shattered... a good omen. Explosive bolts were detonated at the same 
time, releasing the thin metal sheets which ‘til then had hidden the 
ship's name: SNS ROYAL SOVEREIGN, which was met with applause from the 
small crowd in the observation room. There were some journalists in the 
room, present at Naval invitation. Unrest had been growing in some 
sections of the public and the navy wanted to put on a good show. It 
was part of a twofold PR strategy: parade some of their flashier 
hardware to the press and tell the public of their successes, and also 
try to impress on them the very real threat posed by the Megaerans. A 
terrorist group called Stellar Peace had carried out a number of 
bombings and attempted bombings against naval institutions on earth and 
called for neutrality. The navy had to turn the tide of public opinion 
against the isolationists. 

The ceremony concluded, the spectators turned around. In the centre of
the room was a holo-projector about the size of a pool table and 
floating above was an image of Royal Sovereign. She was a long cudgel 
shaped craft, taller than she was wide and with no sharp angles. 
Vice-Admiral Takahama was standing behind the projector indicating 
various parts of the ship with a long silver pointer as he described it 
to the cameras. 

Adams left, she had already given some interviews and had no desire to
repeat the experience. In accordance with regulations she had been 
court-marshalled for the loss of Broadsword and found blameless, indeed 
she had been commended for preventing the almost certain destruction of 
Crusader. Despite this the majority of the questions she had been asked 
related to the incident and she wished to forget it. 

She strode briskly down the transparent walkway that connected the
shipyard to one of the ship's many airlocks. There were few other 
people in the tube, mostly technicians returning to the dock having 
completed their tasks. Adams' task was just beginning. By the time she 
reached the airlock she had donned her earpiece and as she entered she 
spoke, “Computer, give me Lieutenant Lott.” There was a beep and then a 
reply, the computer translating from Lott's native German, “Lott here.” 
“How long ‘till we have manoeuvring speed?” asked the captain. 
“Reactors one and two are online, you'll have number three in fifteen 
minutes and number four in forty. You've got manoeuvring now at a push 
but I recommend you wait for number three reactor to come online.” 
“Understood. I need the projector charged as soon as possible.” “I'll 
see to it captain.” 

Lott was standing on a catwalk halfway up a room which was as tall as
four normal decks. It was a circular room with catwalks around the wall 
and in the centre was the spherical matter/anti-matter intermix chamber 
below which was a wide magnetic constrictor coil which introduced the 
matter to the chamber while above was a similar coil which introduced 
the anti-matter. Big stencilled letters on the wall told anyone who 
cared to know that this was Reactor Room 3, but the combination of the 
tall cylindrical shape of the room and the central pillar-like reactor 
made the whole affair seem more like a missile silo than a power plant. 
Lott was watching a series of readouts which indicated the strength of 
the magnetic and force-field containment shells. If one failed the 
other could act as backup, but if both failed then the reactor would in 
all likelihood destroy the ship. These shells took time to charge up. 


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