22

he computer console chimed a lriendly

wake-up tone. Knowing il would sound
again before I had lo get up, I pulled the
covers over my shoulder and turned away
from the soft glow ol its screen. Right on
schedule, it chimed again nine minutes later. I
rolled over and sat up. At first the room, lit with
a sofl blue light, looked out of place. Then I
realized that I must have been dreaming of
home several parsecs away; lwas still on the
KatlhC. Euchannon
lshowered, dressed in standard shipboard
coveralls. and walked to the common room
and began fixing a meal when the Medical
Petty Officer walked in, carrying her portable
computer.
"Morning,Docl"
"Morning, Sam," she repliedwhile making
another entry.
"Are you sure you've calibrated that eguipment?" I asked. "l still think these infernal
machinesaretryingto poisonusl"
"Well, you haven't died yet, so they can't be
too far off," she answered wryly, then, changing the subject, "Any mail yet?"
"l don't think so, but I'm just taking the
watch. Some may have come in during lhe last
twelve hours. At any rate, a scout is due within
the next few days. h'll probably have mail."
Doc simply nodded and went about her
work. Doc didn't stand a watch like the rest ol
us, but making surewe stayed healthykept her
busy enough.
I linished my meal and depositedthe dishes
in the recycling machine, then left lor my tour,
which largely consisted of a walk through ol
theforward spaces checking on conditions.
Seeing that everything was normal, I
worked my way up to the fonarardend of the
upper level to the Bridge. As I entered, I saw
thatthe ExecutiveOfficerhad arrived early and
had relieved the Captain. My Chiel was
standing and stretching and, upon seeing me,
he yawned oui, "Ready to take the watch?"
"Sure,what doyou have?"
The Chief reviewedthe events of the watch
including the positions of our sister ships of the
patrol. Satisfied with the turnover, I relieved
him and hewandered offthe Bridge.
My watch station was at the communications console on the port side ol the Bridge.
Fonrvardof me were the piloting and navigation
consoles, to the port and starboard of the
centerline. Across from me on the starboard
side was the engineeringconsole where the
Engineering Officer of the Watch sat. In the
center of this semi-circlewas the acceleration
seatforthe Officerof the Deck.
lwatched my monitor and noted the various
watches being relieved,As Watch Chief, I had
more watches working for me than any
watchstander other than the OOD. ln Fire
Conlrol, lhere was the Fire Conlrol Supervisor
and Technician, who maintained lhe weapon
system in a condition of readiness.Also under
me were marines standing Sergeant of the
Watch, Magazine Watch, and Armory Watch.
On a starship, everyone has a job, even the
marines who ride. Another marine walch was
the Technical Assistant, sort of a roving
troubleshooter who usually functioned as a
Mart Ge/nas serues ina similarro/eaboard
a U S. submaniie as Petty Offteer Sam Jacobs
does aboard the Buchannon.'Exercise' provides gamers vith an inlormatre examp/e of
vhal duty /fe is like aboard mi,litary cra/?.

gopher as well as performingminor repairs.

The watch was proceedingfairly uneventful
until the MonitorWatch got excited. "Officer of
the Deck," he said, "l am detecting neutrino
emissionsbearing 144.25minus 30.225,estimated range: 1,000,000kilometers."
"Aye.Try to get a betterfixon h Monitor."
"Officer of the Deck, emissions are becoming stronger. Contact is probably a ship
emergingfrom jumpspace."
l'Very well Monitor." Then, turning to me,
"Chief,sound GeneralQuarlers."
"Ayel" I replied, depressing the control for
General Quarters. h was ship's standard
operatingprocedureto go to GeneralQuarters
whenever a ship emerged from jumpspace.
While this contact was probably the scoul we
were expecting, we would assume a ready
statusuntilwe positivelyidentifiedthe craftas it
could be unfriendlyand we would not want to
be unprepared. In engineering, drive technicianswould be activatingthe secondarypower
plant,which was normally kept ofi line to lower
fuel comsumptionand electromagneticemmisions.The exlra power would let us use our lull
maneuverability and both batleries of lasers.

I readied and sent a transmission, a coded

burst to minimize our emissions, lo lhe I Nr/e
and lhe Hatteras Kane, our sister ships, to alert
them of the contact. Seconds later. I receiveda
similar burst f rom the t Ni/e.
Meanwhile, behind me, the Tech Assistant
had arrived and was removing vacuum suits
fromlheir lockers.
The Captain arrived on the Bridge and
relievedthe XO, who went to relievethe EOW.
When my relietarrived I reviewedthe situation,
ih6n went to Fire Control, just aft of the Bridge.
A junior petty officerwatched ihe system while
the rest of the gunners donned their vacuum
suits.The Chielwas already present and, since
he was almost linished donning his suit, I
startedto don my own. We left our helmets off,
which allowed us to use the headsets. The
headsets contain short range transmitters
which send signals lo units in the consoles
which amplify and send them throughout the
ship on securecircuits.
On the ship's public address system the
captain announced, "This is the Captain. We
are receiving a transponder code from the
contact.Decoding should come momentarily."

23
"Bridge, Fire Control manned for General
Quarters."I heard the Chief reoort behind me.
Otherstationswere making similar reports,As I
finisheddonning my suit, most of the gunners
weremakingtheir initialweaponschecks,
On my headset I heard the Captain say,
"FireControl, I have not released weapons tor
launch." Chief Gorland acknowledged. Since
the contact was transmitting a transponder
code,it was probably a lriendly vessel. On the
public address system came, "This is the
Captain. The contact is one of our scouts.
Secure{rom General Quarters,"
The off-watchsection would be glad to hear
that.lt meant that they could go back to bed or
continueofi-duty pastimes. I quickly removed
my vacuum suh, leaving il lor the Fire Control
watchesto restore, and returned to the Bridge
to relievePetty Officer Richards,who had the
positionof Communications Operator during
General Quarters. Richards was already
copyingbroadcastsfrom the scout. Most of the
messageswere general informationand news.
The more important intormation would come
laterwhen the scout was closer, Since these
messageswere broad band radio transmissions,lhe othershipswould alsoreceivethem.
Afteran hour ol newsr we started to receive
mail in the form ol encoded electronic messages.The codes were relatively simple and
only intended for privacy. I noted that I had a
couple of messages from home. I transferred
themto a secondary terminal, decoded them,
and quickly scanned their contents betore
teturningmy attention to the primary board. I
commanded the computer to transmit messages we had. The scout would carry them
backto the ship's home port for distribution.
An indicalor llashed telling me that the
scoutwas atlempting to establish voice communications.
ltouched the TRANSMITcontrol,
"Scout X-359, this is the Kat/n C. Euchannon
"
Goaheadwithyour transmission.
"Euchanno4 this is the Penson Stand by
to receivea message by maser."
I noted that lhe scout speaking had used
lheir shio's informal nickname instead of its
otficial designation. I replied, "Understand
X-359,we require a lew minutes to set up our
antenna.I will callwhen we are ready."
They acknowledged and I set aboul work.
We were using our maser communicator to
keep in contact with our probe. I noted its
projectedcourse and instructed it to transmit
by bursi radio lransmission il it detected any
nw contacts, then ordered lhe computer to
redirectthe maser antenna ioward the scout.
Momentslater we were receiving their carrier
signal.Determining thai we had a good fix, I
radioed, "X-359, this is the Euchannon Slandingby lor maser transmission."
Seconds later we received a short coded
message. I waited until the message had
repeated twice before announcing to the
scout, "X-359, Buchannon has copied your
message.lf you have no further messages,we
willbe breaking maser contact."
"Buchannon, Penson No further messages.Have a nice patrol."
"Officerof the Deck," I reported. "We have
an encoded message aboard and the computershowsthatit requires manual decoding."
"Very well, Watch Chief," returned the
Captain,who had retained the watch while
waiting tor the incoming message traffic.
"Engineering Otficer, have the Engineering
Chiel lay to lhe Bridge to relieve you so you

can assistin decoding."

The EOW resoonded to the order then
directed the computer to locate and pass the
order to the EngineeringChief.
Chief Simmons arrived after a short while,
lookingsomewhattired and none too pleased
with this second disturbancein one offwatch.
After the Chiel relieved him as EOW, the
Engineer and the XO went to the ship's office.
Each had one combinationto a dual combination safewhich held the ship's code book and
olher Top Secret information.They returneda
shorttime laterwith the messageon the secure
hand computer. The Captain read lhe message and keyed the computer for routing. The
messageread:

maser to mainlain secure communications.

The Ni/e and the Kane are closer to the
contacts and are maneuvering to intercept.
The Kaneis moving its probe closer for a better
look. ln the meanlime, we are to maintain
watch overthe planet."
"Do you think any more ships'llshow up?"
"You can never tell. I've seen exercises in
which hall a dozen ships or more would go up
against two or three ships. They usually
enteredthe system in several difierent groups.
This group might be a decoy."
"Could be," I noted while looking at the
relativepositions in the holodisplay. I had my
suit on except for gloves and helmet, which
were close at hand, and assumed control ol
FireControlwhile the Chief suited up.
SECRET
Checking the status display, I saw that all
From:CommanderPatrolSquadron Four
lour missile iurrets had exercise weapons
To: All VesselsOperatingin Toga System
loaded. We had full oower available to the
ExerciseQuiet Intruder
lasers,though they were conligured to a low
ExerciseCommences132-1107-0OO0UST power beam for exercisepurposes.
ExerciseTerminates136-1107-2400UST
As I turned my attention once again to the
Only exerciseweapons authorized.
holodisplay, I saw our probe settling into an
SECRET
orbit about the planet below. The Nr'/es probe
approached orbit further around the world.
Today was day 129 of the year 1107. We The probes would help us monitor the planet
had a couple of days before the exercise while the other ships were away.
began. However, those days would not be
"Chief, the contacts are changing formslack. The weapons department had a lot of ation," I announced as one of the legs of the
work to do before that time in order to be "V" dropped back lrom the resl.
ready. We would have to enler the cargo bay
"They're probably trying to gel lhe Kane
and prepare exercise missiles and load them andthe Nlelo split up,"the chief observed.
into the magazine, replacing several tactical
The lone contact, now designated as C-2,
missiles.We would also haveto make sure that had slipped well below the level of our sister
we had our nuclear missiles properly located ships. As we watched, we received, "Fire
with their safetymechanismsattached.
Control, Bridge. We have identified contacts
My Chief cam up to the Bridge, having C-1 and C-3 as 40Oton escorts.C-2 is probably
been roused to read the message. We a 600 ton treighter."
discussedthe work scheduleand decided that
I started to suspect that more ships would
we would not start until my section came on arrive soon. h didn't seem likely that the
again, which would allow veryonsome time Admiralty would try running two 40Olon ships
for rest before we started th work. That is, if against three 7OOton ships. Of course, the
the Captain didn't want to do too many freighter might be a diflerent type of ship
GeneralQuartersdrills.
acting like a freighter.
We were receiving probe data that the Kane
was relaying when things starled happening.
Zero hundred UniversalShip Time of day First,one of the contacts,probably C-2, started
132 seemed to come quickly. Nevertheless, a powerful radio jammer that cut all radio
ship and crew were ready. I was going ofl contact between lhe Kane and us. Next, the
watch at the time, but didn't reallyexpectio go allegedfreighter loosed a spread of missilesat
to General Quarters during the nerit twelve the Kaneandlhe Ni/e.
hours. These exercisesallowed a broad time
Then,to make mattersworse, twotreighters
for events,primarilyto allow forthe uncertainty appeared where there was one before. I
of a ship's exit lrom jumpspace, but also to assumed they had launched a countermeaallow for uncertaintyon the part ol the ships sure device which gave off neutrinos and
involved,makingthe exercisemore realistic.
electromagnetic emissions idenlical to the
As I expected, the other section's watch those of the launching ship. We would
passed without event. My next watch passed eventually sort them out using the mass
as well, which brought us to day 133. After detector, but, in the meantime, their diversion
dinner I elected to get some rest in case lhe would delay actions, possibly giving them the
intruder or intrudersarrived soon, the chances edge they would need to win this engagement.
forwhich were definitelyincreasingaswe were All we could do until they got close was simply
well intothe exerciseperiod.
wait and watch.
The pulsing, electronicgong that sounded
It may not seem like sound tactics to let two
GeneralQuarterswoke me from sleep. I pulled ships fighl three while a third ship walched a
on my coverallsand hurried up to Fire Control. planet. However, one must consider our
Stepping into my vacuum suh, I asked the mission in lhis syslem. The planet revolving
Chief, manning the master console, "What's below us is Toga, which, until recently,
the situalion?"
belonged to the Myrdan Corporation of the
"The Kaneb probe spotted three contacts lmperium. Authorities discovered that the
entering the system. They refusedto respond Myrdan Corporation was harvesting a certain
to communicalions hail and they're running plant from the world that had spores which
without transponders. Shortly after entering, were strongly hallucinogenic and quite illegal
they maneuvered into a "V" formation and in the lmperium where they were selling them.
headed for the olanet. Both the Ni/e and we The lmperium revoked Myrdan's charter and
have set our probes on auto and are using the set up an interdiction patrol to keep other

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25
enterprising individuals from attempting the
sametrick.Therefore,our primary mission islo
prevent ships lrom landing on the planel
unlessauthorizedby the lmperium.
I turned my attention from the planet to
watchthe progress ofthe battle.The Kaneand
Nrlehaddestroyed the missileswith laser fire.
lhe Kane'sprobe was no longer maneuvering,
which probably meant that rt had been
destroyed.One oJthe 40Oton vesselswas now
disabled,and the freighter was turning toward
the planet. Kaneand Nlewere continuing to
pursuethe other intruder, apparentlyconlident
lhatwe could handle the freighter.
The holodisplayshowed the newestconlact
as C-4. Sensors identified this as a decoy
probe,the one that had earlier looked like a
{reighter.Now that we had identilied it, it would
be of littleconcern unless it changed course to
intercept one of our vessels, which would
indicatethat it probably contained a warhead.
The Captain ordered a course change in
order to position our vessel between the
approachingfreighter and Toga. Then sensors
detected a new neutrino source. I smiled,
thinkingihat the exercisewas suddenlygoing
lo get more interesting--anddifficult. Another
shipwas enteringthe system.
Afew minutes passed and then we received
the report, "Fire Control, Bridge. Designate
newcontact as C-5. Sensor informationidentifiesthe contact as a 300 ton merchant. Wait,
newinformationcoming in . . . ils power levelis
increasing
. . ."
Suddenly,things got very crazy.C-5 turned
on a high poweredjammer which blockedour
active sensors. which was unexpected as
merchantsdo not carry jamming equipment,
whichis military gear. lt took several tense
minuteslor us to pinpointthe contactwith our
masssensor,which works in a passivemode
andis not affectedby jammers.
C-5 was increasingits velocity and changing its vector for entry into Toga's atmosphere.Our CommunicationsOoeratorsent the
standardwarning message over severalfrequencies,
but the messagewas disregardedor
waslost in the electromagneticnoisethat C-5
wasproducing.
The Captain waited to determinethat the
intruderwas intent on a planetary landing,
then passed, "Fire Control, Bridge. Exercise
weaponsare releasedfor launch." With that
message,FireControl became very active.
At this distance,our laserswould be all but
inetteclivewithout active sensors. Chief Corlandand I discussedour options and elected
to usemissileswith neutrinoseekingguidance
systems.Although they were more expensive
than other guidance systems, the intruder
couldnotjam them.
Whilethe chiel reportedour decisionto the
Bridge and awaited approval, I selected
neutrinoseekers on my panel. ln the missile
magazine several decks below, machinery
rotatedthe selected missiles into position to
place them into the launchers. Approval
lollowedquickly,and I commandedthe magazinelo load. That's v.rhenthe first missileshil
lhe Buchannon
I knewthat the Buchannonfloated in space
likea thing wounded. The missilesthat had
struck us were not exercise weapons. but
carriedhigh explosivewarheads.lt they had
been nuclear, the Buchannon would be an

-3

expandingball ol radioactivegassesby now.

We currently had emergency power only.
One missile had disabled our main power
plant and caused th secondary plant to
conduct a safe shutdown, but the drive
technicianswere working to gel it back on line.
Having a vacuum in the engineering spaces
would hinder their efforts. So would the fact
that we had lost two drive technicians. The
explosion seriouslywounded one, and Doc is
treating him in sickbay. The other is missing,
presumedlyblown out of the ship by explosive
decompression.lf he had his vacuum suit fr.rlly
on, he might have a chance of survival.lf not,
he has longsincedied.
Another system which we'd lost was our
sensor suite.Apparently,one of the missiles
was a radiationseekerwhich made a direct hii
on our sensordome. Repairswereundenaray.
While the Chief assisted with sensor
repairs, I supervised casualty control procedures in Fire Control. Power surges had
severelydamaged severalof the consolesand
set fire to some of the circuitry.The fires were
extinguished,and we were trying to repair and
reconfigurethe consolesin order to get al least
one functional. With the main power plant
inoperablewe would not have powerfor lasers.
However,when the other plant came back on
line,we would haveenoughto launchmissiles.
Although this section had retained its
airtight integrity, we had donned helmet and
gloves after the first missile hit, and the
atmosphere was being removed to prevent
explosive decompression il we got hit again.
This is a common practicefor ships entering
combat, particularlysmaller ships like the
Buchannon.However,for exercises,this practice was usuallynot followedunlessdirected
by the message. I had a feeling that policy
wouldchangein the f uture.
Two decks below me. relativeto the ship.
lhe marinecontingentwas manuallyopening
the vehiclebay doors.ll the intruderdid reach
the planet, its crew would very shortly have
company.With the ship damaged,I knewthat
the marineswould be incitedfor a goodfight.
Somehow, the crew of this offender had
learned of our exercise, and was using it to
attempt a landing on Toga. They had gambled
on only one ship guardingthe planetand had
won. lf their timing had been off by a few hours,
they would have found a differentsituation.Of
course, they could have feigned innocence
and requested refueling at the gas giant. As
long as they didn't make a hostilemove, we
would probably have allowed them to go their
way. But this crew had clearly violated both
common space regulationsand the interdiction of Toga by attacking a vessel and
attemptingto land on the planet,and we had to
make everyeffortto preventit.
More time passed. Then, systems began
coming back on line as the drive technicians
restartedthe secondary power plant. I looked
at the holodisplay;the intrudercontinuedhs
coursefor the world below. lts crew apparently
believed they had disabled lhe Bochannon
beyond the capacityto attack them; a mission
killin militaryterms.
We had only a precious few minutesto act
belore the intruder enteredthe atmosohere.
The Navy would want that crew alive if at all
possiblelor interrogation
and prosecution,but
if we disabledthe intruCerin the atmosohereit
would probablycrash.lf it diclmanageto enter
the atmosphere,we would have to send the

marines. On the other hand, if we launched

missiles before the intruder entered atmosphere and missed or left the ship functional, it
would be able to fire another shot at us and,
with our lasers out of commission, we would
haveavery limitedanti-missilecapability.
I knew the Captain was deliberatingthe use
of a nuclear weapon, which would likely
destroy the intruder and kill it's crew with
radiation. h would certainly prevent the ship
from enteringthe atmosphere, but the captain
would have to justify its use to a Board of
Inquiry.That is, if we survivedto see one.
Our maser communicator had made contact with our probe. We had hoped to get
active sensor information trom it, but the
intruderwasstilljamming activesensors.
"Fire Control, load all turrets with conventional warhead weapons. Use missiles with
neutrinoseekingguidancesystems!"ordered
the captain.He had made his decision.
I acknowledged the order and started my
selection. As I entered the command, more
trouble appeared on my console;a malfunc'
tion had occurred in the autoloader. "Torson,
take over Fire Control and continue plotting
launch trajectory. Dariel, come with mel" I
ordered as I opened the door to leave.Wilh the
grav plates off,we floated weightlessdown the
passageway aft to the lift. The lift would not
lunclion while the ship had limited power, bul a
hatchfor such occasionslay close by.
Turningthe handwheelslowly,lcrackedthe
hatch to make sure there was no residual
pressure in the deck below. lf there was and I
rapidly unlatched the hatch, the differential
pressurewould blow it open, seriously injuring
anyonein the way. We pulled our way down to
the next deck. Opening the next hatch in a
similar manner,we quickly reached the lowest
deck, closing the halches behind us to
maintain airtight integrityshould the captain
desirelo pressurizeany portion of the ship.
When we reached the magazine door, I
calledthe Bridge using my headset,"Bridge,
this is Petty Officer Jacobs at the magazine.
Requestmagazineunlock sequence in order
to enterand conductdamagecontrol."
"Magazine,standby for unlock sequence
on my Mark...Mark."
I entered the four digit code that I had,
knowingthat, on the Bridge,the Captain was
entering his code. We both had to enter our
codes within 15 seconds of each other or the
magazinelockwould not open.
When lfelt the impactof the bolt releasing,I
slid the door open and pushed myself inside
and over to the local control panel. Switching
ihe command functionfrom remote to local, I
began a diagnostictest to locate the problem.
The loaders at the turrets worked, as did the
conveyorswhich took missilesfrom the magazine to the lurrets. Since the turrets still had
exerciseweaoons in them. I commanded the
loaders to unload them. Next, I turned my
attentionto the feed mechanism which moved
lhe weapons from their storage racks to the
conveyors. That was where the malfunction
lay. A proximity explosion had buckled a
deckplateand jammedthe feed mechanism.
There was no way to repair the problem
quickly.We would have to transferthe missiles
from the racks to the conveyors manually.
Darielhad anticipatedthat such aclion would
be necessary and was already taking equipmentf rom the handlinglocker.
The conveyors had arrived and Dariel

28
started removing the exercise weapons from possiblethat the intruderwas trying to deceive
them while I released the selecled missiles us or attempting to shield itself from neutrino
trom their racks.Hinderedby vacuum suits,we seekingmissiles.Of course,all of the missiles
moved as quickly as we dared. Of the 240 that we launchedhad reachedit by now.
Over the communicationsline, I heard the
missifes carried onthe Buchannon, only twelve
of the conventional missiles had neutrino Caplain order our Probe Operatorto move the
seeking guidance systems; enough for one probe closerto the intruder.Since il was more
maneuverablethan us, it could rapidly close
shotfrom alltubes.
As soon as we had one iurret's missiles on on the intruder while we maintained a reaits conveyor, I commanded il to load, When the sonablysafedistance.
As lhe probe moved closer, it began
control panel indicaled that loading was
complete, I announced, "Bridge, we have detecting smaller objects which were soon
identifiedas debris. Moving into visual range,
completed loading turret three."
"Magazine, continue loading. We will the probe sent back an image that grew from a
launch as the turrets become available. The point of light into a flattened, rectangular
intruder is almost in the atmosphere. Petty pyramid. As the image grew, I noted several
Officer Jacobs, return to Fire Control as soon irregularitiesin the othenvisesmooth outlineol
as all neutrino seeking conventional missiles the ship, which soon took the form of jagged
holesin itshull.We'd hit'em alright.
are loaded,'theCaptainordered.
"Standby for maneuver!" the Captain
"Aye, Captain." I replied into my headset
microphone as I continued to work. A few announced on the all hands line. Without
minutes later, all the neutrino seekers were in arti{icialgravity or motion compensators, we
turrets and I motioned to Darielthal ii was time would leelthe g-forcesas the ship accelerated,
to leave. I secured the magazine door behind and, as the thirty-second warning chimed, I
us and we retraced our Dath back to Fire strapped myself into my seat. When the
maneuver drive engaged, I leh my body
Conlrol.
As I pulled myself back into my seat I slraining againstthe straps since lfaced away
received a burst of information.Our probe was from the directionof travel.
Minutes later, the Captain announced,
suddenly able to use its active sensors again,
which meant that the intruder's jammer had "Boarding party, muster in the boarding lock."
shut down. which I hoped was because of a I knew that our ship had matched course and
loss of power due to a damaged power plant. speedwith the intruderand wewere preparing
Calling up passive sensor dala on their to board it. This was the job ol the marines,and
emissions,I noted that their neutrinocount had one of the main purposesthat we carriedthem.
After severalminor course changes, reflecdropped to virtually nothing. Active sensors
indicated that the intruder had stopped ted by the gentle motion caused by our
maneuvering as well; anolher good sign that attitude jets, I feh a soft jar as the two ships
we had disabled it. However, ii was also came together. I mused that ihe paint crews

were not going to be happy with the Buchannonwhen we returned to port. Then the order
came, "Away boarders."
The marines were trained for an opposed
boarding, and I was reasonably certain that
would be the case with this intruder. Several
marines, augmented by weapons department
personnel, remained at the boarding lock to
provide delense in case the intruder's crew
managed to evade the marines and attempted
toboardthe Buchannon
More minutes passed. Then the announcement came, "The intruder is secure, and the
marines have taken several prisoners. Secure
from GeneralQuarters!"
A search of the intruder revealedthat it had
enough material in its hold to set up a base
camp on Toga. lts crew must have been crazy
or desperate to attempt such a scheme. Ol
course, had ihey succeeded, they stood to
make a lot of money.
Our probe was now searching lor the
missingengineeringhand. The exercisemerchant (actuallya vesselfrom our own navy) had
arrived and had also joined the search. The
Nr/e and Kana, which had been a good way
outsystem, had ceased the exercise as soon
as they learned of the atiack and were now
relurningto provide assislance.
As I was shutting down Fire Control
systems I heard air slarting to fill the compartment. The battle was over, but our work was
just beginning. The crew had to gel the
Buchannonback in an ooeralional condilion if
possibleand prepare the ship to rturn to port.
Begardless, we had several long weeks of
work ahead of us. I knew this would be one
exercisewewouldlong remember!f

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