The Romulan War_ Beneath the Raptor's Wing (Book 1) - Michael A. Martin [149]
Glancing over his shoulder, Mayweather saw Commander Tyler Mendez—Captain Ketai Shosetsu’s XO and the Yorktown’s second in command—turn to face the man who sat brooding in the big chair at the bridge’s center.
“Let me guess,” Mendez said. “That warp field is emanating from just beyond the sensitivity limit of the system’s warp-detection grid.”
“Confirmed,” Giannini and Albertson said in a near-perfect unison, both of them apparently rapt by the figures and images on their respective console displays.
“This would seem to completely confirm Lieutenant Reed’s theory about Romulan tactics,” Captain Shosetsu said.
“I agree,” Mendez said, nodding. “They park a warp-driven mother ship just outside the detection limit, then tiptoe right past the sleeping watchdogs with their subluminal ships.”
“But they’ve tweaked their tactics a little bit this time,” Mayweather said, then stopped himself when he realized he’d crashed right into a discussion between the Yorktown’s two most senior officers.
“Go ahead, Mister Mayweather,” Shosetsu said genially. “I want to hear your perspective.”
“Now it looks like they’ve given their sublight craft the additional task of disabling chunks of the detection grid on their way in,” Mayweather said.
“That could explain the hard radiation traces I’m picking up along the fighter ship’s trajectory,” Giannini said. “They’ve been using nukes on enough of the system’s detection nodes to create a substantial zone of blindness.”
“The Romulans must have somehow gotten wind that Starfleet has figured out how they’ve pulled off so many sneak attacks right through the detection grids,” the captain said. “And they’ve begun to adjust their tactics accordingly.”
“But there’s only so many nukes that sublight ships that small can carry,” said Albertson at tactical. “It doesn’t make a lot of sense to squander your whole arsenal before you even reach your target.”
Albertson’s objection made sense to Mayweather as well—until he paused for a moment to think it through. “It won’t matter if the little ships empty their quivers before they get all the way to Andoria—not if their real mission is to cover the tracks of their warp-driven mother ship just before she swoops in. A bigger, better-armed warp-driven ship could do a hell of a lot more damage.”
Mendez nodded, looking impressed. “Very good, Ensign. Damned clever, these Romulans.”
Shosetsu scowled. “They may have out-clevered themselves this time. If they really are trying to set up a ‘zone of blindness’ to let their mother ship approach Andoria undetected, then they should have synchronized their attacks on the detection nodes a bit better. Let’s make sure their learning curve costs ’em this time. Ensign Fleming, raise General Shran on a scrambled channel, and make sure Challenger is in the loop.”
The young woman at the comm console swiftly entered a series of commands. A moment later the azure features of the Andorian general scowled across the bridge from the central viewscreen.
Mayweather hadn’t seen Shran since shortly before Commander Tucker’s death early last year. Back then Shran had been struggling to adjust to a new civilian life that had been forced upon him, at least in part, by the destruction of his Imperial Guard warship, the Kumari. Although Mayweather had not known him well, he recognized Shran’s contributions to the Coalition cause, and was glad to see that he had finally gotten back into the good graces of the Andorian military.
“General Shran, I trust your sensors have detected the warp field just outside the perimeter of the detection grid,” said Captain Shosetsu.
The general nodded grimly. “We’ve just picked it up, Captain. We have yet to establish visual contact, but we’re reading the warp-field emissions as a single vessel, probably a large bird-of-prey.”
“Your sensors can see a bit farther than ours, General,” Commander Mendez said. “Can you tell if