14th November 1895
Design of the Perseus class Scout Cruiser has been finalised. She is equipped with far more capable sensors than any previous British ship and will serve as the eyes and ears of the Fleet. Two will be built initially and should be ready by the end of 1896.
Perseus class Scout Cruiser 5000 tons 492 Crew 826.4 BP TCS 100 TH 420 EM 0
4200 km/s JR 3-50 Armour 1-26 Shields 0-0 Sensors 80/80/0/0 Damage Control Rating 4 PPV 0
Annual Failure Rate: 50% IFR: 0.7% Maintenance Capacity 413 MSP
J500 Jump Drive Max Ship Size 5000 tons Distance 50k km Squadron Size 3
Whitworth Ion Engine (7) Power 60 Efficiency 0.70 Signature 60 Armour 0 Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 200,000 Litres Range 102.9 billion km (283 days at full power)
Foxhunter 210/100 Active Search Sensor (1) GPS 21000 Range 210.0m km Resolution 100
TH80 Thermal Sensor (1) Sensitivity 80 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 80m km
EM80 Passive Sensor (1) Sensitivity 80 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 80m km22nd November 1895
The gravitational survey ship Newton has briefly entered Britannia to report the discovery of an ideal habitable world in the Salamis system, three jumps away via Liverpool and Newcastle. Unusually, the ideal world is actually a moon, orbiting a small gas giant one hundred and forty million kilometers from a yellow G0-V star. Conditions on the moon are almost identical to Victoria, with a gravity of 1.0G, temperature of 24C and an oxygen content of 0.2 atm. The second planet of the same system also has a breathable atmosphere, although the temperature is on the low side at -19C, and is therefore a very promising target for terraforming.
4th December 1895
Design of the new planetary bombardment ship has been completed. The Agamemnon class monitor has a new fire control system with a range of one hundred and twenty-six million kilometers against large targets and carries a new missile with a matching range. As the Agamemnon is slower than our other warships and has no more armour than a freighter or survey ship, it is not suitable for solo operations. In fact, it carries limited sensors and will have to rely on other ships, such as the Perseus class scouts, to identify targets. It is designed for situations similar to that in Marathon, where hostile mobile forces have been eliminated or suppressed but a planet is holding our regular forces at bay. The Agamemnon will provide an ultra long-range capability against such planetary targets.
While the Falchion Ground-attack Missile is relatively slow and will therefore be less useful against fast-moving spacecraft, its three hour endurance makes it ideal for attacking planetary targets from outside the range of any defending missiles. A variant of the Falchion with a speed of 18,000 km/s and a range of ninety-eight million kilometers is also being developed for use against targets with anti-missile defences. Until the Mongols demonstrate they have such defences, our ordnance factories will concentrate on the basic model Falchion.
The Agamemnons will be built in the Armstrong Whitworth shipyard, which built the Brunel class construction ships. Retooling will require five months so the first ship will be laid down in May 1896. Construction is expected to take over a year. The Mongols may remain relatively quiescent during that time but I fear that is too much to hope for. At the very least, I hope that our battleships can keep them penned up in the Marathon system until the monitors are ready.
Agamemnon class Monitor 8000 tons 802 Crew 1043 BP TCS 160 TH 600 EM 0
3750 km/s Armour 1-35 Shields 0-0 Sensors 8/0/0/0 Damage Control Rating 6 PPV 36
Annual Failure Rate: 85% IFR: 1.2% Maintenance Capacity 489 MSP
Magazine 936
Whitworth Ion Engine (10) Power 60 Efficiency 0.70 Signature 60 Armour 0 Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 200,000 Litres Range 64.3 billion km (198 days at full power)
Vickers S6 Missile Launcher (6) Missile Size 6 Rate of Fire 60
Bloodhound 126/100 Missile Fire Control (1) Range 126.0m km Resolution 100
Falchion Ground-attack Missile (156) Speed: 12000 km/s End: 178.6 minutes Range: 128.6m km Warhead: 6 MR: 10 Size: 6
Navigation Sensor (1) GPS 1050 Range 10.5m km Resolution 50
TH8 Passive Sensor (1) Sensitivity 8 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 8m km13th March 1896
The gravitational survey ship Halley has just returned to Britannia only a few days after departing for the Sparta system via Ottawa. She brings astounding news. Clarke, a geological survey ship operating in Sparta, has discovered an abandoned but intact alien city on the second planet of the system. In addition, the geological survey has revealed large deposits of all eleven minerals, including five million tons of 0.8 accessibility Duranium. Although most of the minerals are at medium or low accessibilities, manned mining complexes can be used to extract them, which is far cheaper than using automated mines once the necessary population is in place. Sparta II was already a prime terraforming and colonization target due to its colony cost of only 0.13, caused by the surface temperature of -4C, but the discovery of the alien city and the large mineral deposits have made this the most important world in the Empire except for Victoria. We must assemble an archaeological team to investigate as a matter of urgency.
Sparta-A II Geological Survey
Duranium 5,445,000 Acc: 0.8
Neutronium 3,537,000 Acc: 0.5
Corbomite 6,502,500 Acc: 0.4
Tritanium 9,000,000 Acc: 0.4
Boronide 1,867,500 Acc: 0.2
Mercassium 6,502,500 Acc: 0.5
Vendarite 360,000 Acc: 0.2
Sorium 8,410,000 Acc: 0.5
Uridium 8,702,500 Acc: 0.4
Corundium 850,000 Acc: 0.2
Gallicite 3,062,500 Acc: 0.6
Unfortunately, archaeology has not proven a popular choice in our universities as our students are mainly concerned with pushing back the boundaries of science rather than examining the past of an unknown region of space. Even the discovery of the destroyed alien outpost in the Athens system two years ago has not stimulated interest and those comparatively insignificant ruins remain unexplored. A team is eventually assembled under Commander Owen Faulkner, using the best officers we can find. Most of their knowledge is outdated and often from pre-Transference universities. A second team composed of cybernetics experts will also be dispatched to try and reactivate some of the city?s factories and other installations. Both teams are carried by the jump cruiser Blenheim.
4th June 1896
The Apollo class cruisers Andromache, Sirius and Thetis are launched by the Barrow Shipbuilding yard, taking the total number of the class to six.
7th June 1896
450,000 colonists have been transported to Sparta II, using all nine of our White Star class colony ships. Due to the low temperature on the planet supporting infrastructure is required so five Cunard class freighters have transported enough infrastructure to support an eventual population of 7.5 million. Terraforming would be the ideal solution but our six terraforming ship are 7150 tons, which is too large for our 5000 ton jump cruisers to escort. An 8000 ton capacity jump engine is under development but there are no available yards of that size even if we did develop an 8000 ton jump-capable design. In the meantime, the plan is to build jump gates at the Britannia ? Ottawa and Sparta ? Ottawa jump points, although this will take over a year.
27th August 1896
Five weeks ago, the geological survey ship Buckland, investigating the asteroid belt of the Salamis system, was hailed in English, albeit a strange dialect, by a small unknown ship. Commander Joseph Ball responded and found himself talking to the captain of an alien vessel that claimed to be from the United States. Once Commander Ball identified Buckland as a ship of the British Empire, he was contacted by a second American officer; an admiral identifying himself as Chester Nimitz, Chief of Naval Operations. An exchange of information quickly followed and it soon became apparent that the Americans had also undergone their version of the Transference. Even as the discussions continued Buckland?s crew was frantically searching the ship?s extensive database, without success, for any information on a current or past American officer called Chester Nimitz. Eventually, Commander Ball explained the problem and asked if Admiral Nimitz would mind revealing his date of commission. Admiral Nimitz was plainly surprised that Commander Ball didn?t recognize his name but stated that he graduated on January 30th 1905, forty-two years ago.
After a stunned silence, Commander Ball confirmed with Admiral Nimitz that for the United States it was 1947 and revealed that his own ship?s clock read 02:43 on July 28th, 1896. Sir William Christie?s disturbing theory regarding future earthly civilizations has just been proved correct. The Admiral and his advisors, already shocked at meeting a British ship in a galaxy far from home, were no doubt astonished to find that ship came from fifty years in their own past. Their astonishment paled in comparison to that of Commander Ball, his crew and eventually the rest of the Empire. The Buckland was invited to head for the American homeworld, an ideal habitable moon orbiting the innermost gas giant. The contrast between the reception of the Mongol Empire and the United States could not be more complete, especially considering that relations between the British Empire and the United States in 1889, when our Transference took place, were still uncertain although steadily improving.
Now we have more knowledge of the intervening years, the American reaction is easy to understand. Their own Transference took place only two years ago, in 1945 by their calendar, at which time the United States and the British Empire had just fought and won an incredibly costly and destructive global war against Germany and Japan. Even more surprising is that Russia and France (briefly) were on our side. Considering the state of international relations in 1889, a war against Russia and France on the side of Germany and Japan seemed far more likely. In fact, Russia is not even just Russia any more; it has become the Soviet Union, a communist state inspired by the work of Karl Marx. I even met Mr Marx once when he lived in London and he seemed an obscure radical with some strange ideas. It is incomprehensible that those ideas could have such far-reaching consequences. On a more personal note, someone is going to have to tell Queen Victoria that her granddaughter, Empress Alexandra, her husband the Tsar and her entire family were murdered by revolutionaries. If we encounter a future version of the Soviet Union, that one act will cast a great shadow over any possible diplomatic relationship.
Buckland was escorted to the American world by a dozen tiny spacecraft, each of which only just exceeded 200 tons. They were based on a larger 8000 ton ship referred to by the Americans as a ?carrier?. It seems that in the world we left, the aircraft become the dominant weapon of naval warfare with battleships relegated to a secondary role. I find myself strangely curious to see the reaction of Sir William White or Sir Edward Harland when they hear this news. In 1889, the only man-made flying craft were balloons. Although we now have technology far beyond that of 1889 or 1945, the rapid progress of technology on Earth in the fifty-six years since our own Transference is nothing short of miraculous. From the first powered flight in December 1903, it took less than forty years to develop jet aircraft. In 1945, only a few weeks before their own Transference, the United States used atomic weapons against the Japanese Empire, based on the same principles as our own anti-ship missile warheads. When we arrived on Britannia, I thought we had advanced many centuries overnight. Now I find myself wondering just how quickly we would have developed such marvels on Earth without the need for divine intervention.
Ten hours after the initial contact, Buckland was in orbit of Salamis I, or New America as it has been named by its inhabitants. As with our own Transference, it seems the entire population of the United States was somehow lifted from the surface of the Earth and deposited on a new world. In the world which they left, the United States was establishing its industrial and military predominance, even over the British Empire of that time. However, in this new reality the unknown hand behind the Transference seems to have bestowed industrial capacity based purely on population rather than the existing industrial capacity of the transferred population. With a population less than half our own, the United States has a proportionately smaller industrial base. It is also become evident that their arrival in their new home took place five years later than our own arrival so the Transference of various Earthly civilizations did not happen in an instant but over a period of time. Our brief contact with the Mongols before hostilities ensued suggested their time of Transference was much closer to our own. It remains to be seen if any other civilizations arrived in between ourselves and the Americans, or perhaps even earlier than our own arrival, although many of our scientists believe the power behind the Transference would have chosen the greatest Empire in history first. I will try and persuade them not to share that view with the recently arrived American ambassador.
Buckland?s crew was made very welcome on New America and met with their President, Harry Truman. From all accounts he is a very different character from Grover Cleveland, the President of the United States at the time of our Transference. The recent earthly experience of the United States gave them a very different perspective to our own after their arrival. Whereas we had experienced a long period of unchallenged global supremacy and immediately embarked on a program of exploration, they had recently won a long and bitter war. Their initial reaction was to ensure their own defence before venturing far into space. On that basis they have designed and constructed four carriers along with a number of escort vessels. Each Essex class carrier has a complement of twelve P-80 Shooting Star class fighters and a pair of E-1 Tracer early warning craft, one of which made the initial contact with Buckland. They have recently completed their first non-warships, a pair of armed geological survey vessels, and have laid down two freighters. Summaries of the various American designs are found below. With such a defence-minded outlook, the United States was understandably gratified to meet a familiar ally, even if we are not the British Empire from their own time. Our own officers and crew were relieved to meet with such a hospitable reception and a friendly relationship was immediately established.
Known United States ship designs
Midway class Carrier 8000 tons 539 Crew 971 BP TCS 160 TH 600 EM 0
3750 km/s Armour 1-35 Shields 0-0 Sensors 1/0/0/0 Damage Control Rating 5 PPV 0
Annual Failure Rate: 102% IFR: 1.4% Maintenance Capacity 379 MSP
Hangar Deck Capacity 3000 tons Magazine 360
Ion Engine E8 (10) Power 60 Efficiency 0.80 Signature 60 Armour 0 Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 300,000 Litres Range 84.4 billion km (260 days at full power)
AIM-1 Hawk (120) Speed: 20000 km/s End: 15.6 minutes Range: 18.7m km Warhead: 6 MR: 10 Size: 3
SPS-1 Search Sensor (1) GPS 4800 Range 48.0m km Resolution 60
Strike Group
12x P-80 Shooting Star Fighter Speed: 8674 km/s Size: 4.15
2x E-1 Tracer Fighter Speed: 7200 km/s Size: 5Fletcher class Destroyer Escort 3750 tons 246 Crew 641.6 BP TCS 75 TH 300 EM 0
4000 km/s Armour 1-21 Shields 0-0 Sensors 1/5/0/0 Damage Control Rating 2 PPV 24
Annual Failure Rate: 56% IFR: 0.8% Maintenance Capacity 214 MSP
Magazine 160
Ion Engine E8 (5) Power 60 Efficiency 0.80 Signature 60 Armour 0 Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 100,000 Litres Range 60.0 billion km (173 days at full power)
Mk 1 Box Launcher (160) Missile Size 1 Hangar Reload 7.5 minutes MF Reload 1.2 hours
SPG-1 Anti-Missile Fire Control (1) Range 1.9m km Resolution 1
RIM-2 Terrier (160) Speed: 24000 km/s End: 39.1 minutes Range: 56.3m km Warhead: 1 MR: 10 Size: 1
SPS-2 Missile Search Sensor (1) GPS 192 Range 1.9m km Resolution 1
Electromagnetic Sensor EM5 (1) Sensitivity 5 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 5m kmP-80 Shooting Star class Fighter 207.5 tons 12 Crew 38.6 BP TCS 4.15 TH 36 EM 0
8674 km/s Armour 1-3 Shields 0-0 Sensors 1/0/0/0 Damage Control Rating 0 PPV 1.35
Annual Failure Rate: 41% IFR: 0.6% Maintenance Capacity 0 MSP
Magazine 9
FTR Ion Engine E800 (1) Power 36 Efficiency 80.00 Signature 36 Armour 0 Exp 25%
Fuel Capacity 10,000 Litres Range 1.1 billion km (34 hours at full power)
Mk 3 Box Launcher (3) Missile Size 3 Hangar Reload 22.5 minutes MF Reload 3.7 hours
APG-1 Fire Control (1) Range 21.6m km Resolution 45
AIM-1 Hawk (3) Speed: 20000 km/s End: 15.6 minutes Range: 18.7m km Warhead: 6 MR: 10 Size: 3E-1 Tracer class Fighter 250 tons 23 Crew 68.2 BP TCS 5 TH 36 EM 0
7200 km/s Armour 1-3 Shields 0-0 Sensors 1/0/0/0 Damage Control Rating 0 PPV 0
Annual Failure Rate: 50% IFR: 0.7% Maintenance Capacity 0 MSP
FTR Ion Engine E800 (1) Power 36 Efficiency 80.00 Signature 36 Armour 0 Exp 25%
Fuel Capacity 20,000 Litres Range 1.8 billion km (69 hours at full power)
APY-1 SEW Sensor (1) GPS 2160 Range 21.6m km Resolution 45Stewart class Geosurvey Ship 3000 tons 244 Crew 625.2 BP TCS 60 TH 240 EM 0
4000 km/s Armour 1-18 Shields 0-0 Sensors 5/5/0/3 Damage Control Rating 2 PPV 9.45
Annual Failure Rate: 36% IFR: 0.5% Maintenance Capacity 260 MSP
Magazine 63
Ion Engine E8 (4) Power 60 Efficiency 0.80 Signature 60 Armour 0 Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 150,000 Litres Range 112.5 billion km (325 days at full power)
Mk 3 Box Launcher (21) Missile Size 3 Hangar Reload 22.5 minutes MF Reload 3.7 hours
APG-1 Fire Control (1) Range 21.6m km Resolution 45
APY-1 SEW Sensor (1) GPS 2160 Range 21.6m km Resolution 45
Thermal Sensor TH5 (1) Sensitivity 5 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 5m km
Electromagnetic Sensor EM5 (1) Sensitivity 5 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 5m km
Geological Survey Sensors (3) 3 Survey Points
Once the crew of the Buckland were sure their welcome was real, Commander Ball revealed that two other British vessels were in the system; the gravitational survey ships Galileo and Cassini. Although initially concerned that unknown ships were active in their system, President Truman and his advisors were extremely interested in their mission. Research into Jump Point Theory was still underway in the United States, as military research had taken priority, and they had no knowledge of gravitational survey sensors or jump engines. Commander Ball did not have any authority to discuss the technical detail of British ships so he suggested to President Truman that some type of technology exchange could be discussed by higher level representatives of the Empire. In the meantime, the two ships were already on course to withdraw from the system. After several days spent in orbit of New America, the Buckland departed for Victoria with an American delegation on board. She arrived in orbit two days ago and to say the political and diplomatic activity in the last forty-eight hours has been frantic would be a vast understatement.
12th September 1896
One of the fascinating aspects of the recent contact with the United States is learning about the future of individuals within the Empire. For instance, Lord Randolph?s son Winston became one of the pivotal figures of the twentieth century and one of the greatest ever prime ministers in British history. Rear Admiral John ?Jackie? Fisher, currently commander of the battleship Royal Sovereign, became First Sea Lord and the most influential naval officer since Nelson, while his contemporary Commodore Jellicoe, commander of Resolution, commanded the Grand Fleet in the largest battleship engagement in history. Examining the future of members of the Royal Commission provides a much more personal insight into that alternate future. Lord Randolph tragically died in 1895 due to an illness that we can now easily cure, while Sir Archibald Primrose, the 5th Earl of Rosebery, became Prime Minister in 1894, although his government was a brief one, ending just over a year later when Lord Salisbury become Prime Minister once more. As Lord Salisbury is also our current Prime Minister it seems that we are still the same in some ways. As I mentioned earlier in this Chronicle, Sir Archibald is reputed to have said that he had three aims in life: to win the Derby, to marry an heiress and to become Prime Minister. In reality he has so far managed the first two. In his life that would have been he accomplished all three, which has only redoubled his ambition in this life. His regular opponent in Commission meetings, Admiral of the Fleet Sir Richard Hamilton, remained in his current role until 1891, when he became President of the Royal Naval College in Greenwich.
In 1910, Sir William Christie became the first Astronomer Royal to retire, rather than die in office, and he lived until 1922, when he was 81 years old. Sir William was particularly captivated by the revelation that he was buried at sea, near Gibraltar, and has now resolved to be buried in space when he dies for real. Sometimes I have serious concerns about the subjects he finds interesting. Without the Transference, Sir Edward Harland would have become a member of parliament for Belfast North and died at home in 1895. Sir William White, knighted since the Transference was also knighted in the American history books, albeit not until 1895. He was a very busy man, remaining the Director of Naval Construction for 16 years and bearing ultimate responsibility for the design of 43 battleships, 26 armoured cruisers, 102 protected cruisers and 74 unarmoured warships. He served as president of the Institution of Civil Engineers, the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, and the Institution of Marine Engineers as well as Chairman of the Council of the Royal Society of Arts from 1909?1910 and governor of Imperial College from 1907 until his unfortunate death from a stroke in 1913.
Our geological expert William Blandford was most gratified to learn that for his work on the zoology and geology of British India he received a royal medal from the Royal Society in 1901 and in 1904 he was made a Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire. For the last two weeks, he has talked of little else, which is a pleasant change from his accurate but sometime lengthy discourses on planetary geology. William Thomson, President of the Royal Society had a future that contained distinguished awards and unfortunate quotes. He was made Baron Kelvin, of Largs in 1892, Knight Grand Cross of the Victorian Order in 1896 and a Privy Counsellor in 1902. However, those achievements have been overshadowed by a series of statements he made in the latter years of the 19th century, many of which keep mysteriously appearing on sheets of paper pinned to the door of his office at the Royal Society. These include "Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible.", "Radio has no future", ?X-rays are a hoax? and "There is nothing new to be discovered in physics now. All that remains is more and more precise measurement?. Even in the history that would have been, these proved to be unwise statements. Our current level of technological advancement has only increased the hilarity of poor Mr Thomson?s colleagues.
to be continued...
Steve
