Dirge - Alan Dean Foster [136]
Laughter had given way to contemplative quiet. “So the stingship, hypothetically avoiding the attention of an enemy’s weapons systems, penetrates its defenses as far as possible before releasing or firing this drive-driven missile. What’s to prevent the enemy from simply blowing it out of the void?”
“This is not a normal missile,” the young thranx physicist reminded his questioner. “It is powered not by conventional propulsion systems, but by a KK drive. Furthermore, it is being launched from a craft that is itself KK-drive driven. Some shells may indeed be intercepted and destroyed.” Subdued light glinted off enthusiastic compound eyes. “But imagine the effect of several thousand such weapons deployed simultaneously across a wide sphere of conflict. It would be impossible for an enemy to detect, far less predict and intercept, the course of every single incoming munition.
One of the thranx who had not yet spoken now ventured a question. “The defense screens generated by Pitarian ships are very good. At distance, they can disperse even the energy released by a fusion explosion.”
Couvinpasdar efficiently adjusted the projection. Ship models vanished, to be replaced by more intimate schematics decorated with fancies of mathematics. “That is so, but the thermonuclear device that rides behind the drive is only part of the effectiveness of the system. Once the SCCAM shell detects a target, at a safe distance from its launching stingship so as not to compromise that vessel’s drive field, its own field warps into deliberate and irrevocable overdrive. This means it will be attracted to the nearest gravity well of size. In this instance, that would be the corresponding drive field of the target vessel.” His eyes roved his now very solemn and attentive audience from which all suggestion of humor had fled.
“The computations have been crunched many times, and the consequences are inescapable. No defensive screen known can resist the effect of a KK drive on overload. Impacting on the active field of an enemy vessel, the resultant sudden and excessive gravitational distortion would rend both asunder. At the very least its drive would be permanently disabled, rendering the ship unable to move and effectively helpless.”
One of the humans had an objection. “Then all an enemy vessel has to do to avoid such a hazardous interaction is shut down its drive whenever closing stingships or these SCCAM shells are detected. Without a substantial gravity well to attract it, at combat distances the shells are likely to speed right on past.”
Couvinpasdar gestured to indicate that this objection too had been anticipated. “Except that the shell’s sensors have already locked in on the coordinates and course of the target. A ship’s defensive screens are powered by its KK drive. Turn off the drive to eliminate the attracting gravity well, and you also lose your screens. With screens down, a ship is then open and vulnerable to the effects of the thermonuclear device carried by the SCCAM shell.” He watched his audience for reaction. “By either means or both, the enemy is completely destroyed or is rendered incapable of further maneuvering.”
A long, thoughtful pause followed before another of the thranx spoke up. “The system is not perfect. Their proposed exceptional maneuverability notwithstanding, some of these unscreened stingships will still encounter enemy fire that they cannot evade. Ships and pilots will be hit.”
“Two crew per ship. A far more acceptable ratio than if even a single cruiser is lost.”
The human woman who had first spoken had set aside her sarcasm. “Why one human and one thranx pilot? Why not two humans or two thranx?”
“Because research has shown that our minds and bodies work in different ways. Because under the duress of combat, studies prove that humans do certain things well and thranx other things better. Because we complement one another.”
The assembled scientists fell