She considered—briefly—mentioning the entrenched opposition of certain senior officers who saw the entire LAC concept as a useless diversion of resources and manpower from more practical (and traditional) weapons mixes. But the temptation was brief. None of this trio had the seniority to become involved in that kind of high-level internecine strife, and there was no point in worrying them over it.

“But if we’re not checked out on the power plants, how—?” Gearman began, then cut himself off with a blush. A prudent lieutenant did not press a captain of the list for information she chose not to offer, but Truman only smiled once more.

“How will we get them aboard without power?” she asked, and he nodded. “We won’t,” she said simply. “We’ll be taking eighteen of them aboard before we leave for Hancock; the remaining units of the wing have already departed for that system, tucked away in the cargo holds of half a dozen freighters. Does that answer your question?”

“Uh, yes, Ma’am.”

“Good. Now, if you’ll look back at the holo,” Truman went on, “you’ll notice these projections here.” The pointer’s light beam swept over a series of eight open-mouthed, elongated blisters, just aft of the forward impeller ring and placed so that they aligned with the spaces between the ring’s nodes. “These are missile tubes,” she told them. “These four big ones—” the pointer tapped “—are anti-ship launchers, each equipped with a five-round ‘revolver’ magazine. The Shrike only has twenty shipkillers, but she can launch one from each tube every three seconds.” It was Stackowitz’s turn to purse her lips silently, and Truman’s pointer indicated the other four tubes. “These are for counter-missiles, and the reduction in normal missile armament lets us fit in seventy-two of those. In addition, if you’ll notice here—” the pointer touched the sleek prow again. “These are point defense laser clusters: six of them, in a ring around the graser emitter.”

“Excuse me, Captain. May I ask a question?” It was Takahashi, apparently emboldened by her earlier response to Gearman, and she nodded to him. “Thank you, Ma’am.” He paused for a moment, as if searching for exactly the right words, then spoke carefully. “What I’m seeing here seems to be a huge pinnace or assault shuttle, Ma’am, with all its armament fixed forward.” She nodded again, and he shrugged. “Isn’t it just a little, um… risky for something as small as a LAC to cross it’s own ‘T’ whenever it fires at an enemy starship, Ma’am?”

“I’ll let your department officers handle the nuts and bolts, Lieutenant,” she said, “but in general terms, the answer is yes and no. As presently envisioned, doctrine calls for the Shrikes to approach regular warships at an oblique angle, denying the enemy anything like a down-the-throat or up-the-kilt shot. One reason they were designed with no broadside armament was to avoid weakening their sidewalls with gunports. In addition, I’m sure you’ve all noticed the reduced number of drive nodes.”

She tapped the forward drive ring with the pointer, and three heads nodded as one.