Battleship Destroyer (105 page)

"
Well Admiral. If you could make a little noise up there to get the Spiders attention and make them chase you, our damaged squadron just may be able to sneak through the cloud maze ahead of the little squadron chasing them if the Commander is any good."

The Admiral looked at Jack for
a few seconds then smiled. "Shaking her head. At least it is something and it just may help. Ok we will start being a clown civilian transport fleet screaming our heads off for help while losing some of our cohesion. I could even reduce our deceleration a little without risking the fleet. Stop putting on the breaks a little and make a faint toward them. Tease them a bit. Sounds like a bit of fun and good maneuvering practice for the fleet even if it does not work." Turning to look at Jack. "I am going to contact the squadron Commander now to take full advantage if the enemy takes the bait. You can continue down load as much as you can while you are making your run for it."

"Ah no sir.
" Jack tapped his fingers on the side of his chair. "What we can down load is little compared to what treasure I have in my holds sir. Transmitting will only give the enemy a chance to track us from the back scatter as close as we are to the clouds. Though I will send the details of our tube upgrades for the guns just in case we don't make it but little else is transmittable and even then I do not know if you can produce the gasses required without the aliens help." Standing up he leaned in toward the screen. "Sorry sir but I will see you at the Check Point Bubble Admiral. Please don't abandon us there." Jack cut the connection. He had much to do and little time to do it.

Sitting back in his chair. "Number one we need to figure out how to keep the ship cool while we bore a hole
through this cloud so we don't have to worry about the enemy catching us. We will simple head straight for the bubble and bypass the entry point entirely."

"Ah, Captain." The Ensign turned toward Jack. "The slow squadron ships won't stand a chance by themselves
with the advanced squadron arriving 4 hours behind them even if there are only 3 Battle cruisers and not full fledge Battleships."

"Yes I suppose so
Ensign... Damn it. Well I would hate to get stranded in a damn bubble while waiting for an enemy fleet to track us down anyway." Looking up at Pan. "How is upgrading the guns coming Pan?"

"In 5 days you will have yo
ur 16 inch barrels reduced to 12 inches with beams as hot as the God weapons. We are also making upgrades to your generators that will allow the main guns to fire a shot a second. Your smaller weapons will be finished in 2 days. You have a choice on your 5 inch guns. At 4 inches they will have double the range at God weapons temperature. At 3 inches your 5 inch guns will have the range your original 16 inch guns had along with the same penetration ability. We believe you should let us up grade them to 3 inches even though it will take an extra day. Your targeting with their penetrating ability will allow them to knock out most of the battleships self-defense guns making your torpedoes more effective. They also will be more effective point defense weapons against the God torpedoes at long range."

"Ok
… You people are the experts concerning the God weapons and how to damage the Spider Battleships. So do what you think is best." Jacks eyes glazed over.

Pan continued.
"We are in the process of using the life boats many of us arrived in as material to turn one tank deck into birthing compartments for the Greenfoots and have started major repairs to the hull. We…"

Holding up his
hand palm out toward Pan Jack interrupted her. "What if you reduced the bores of the 16 inch guns on down to 10 or even 8 inches? Would that make them able to penetrate the Spider battleship shield decks?"

"My apologies Captain but only the Gods 36 inch main guns can penetrate a shield deck but the
8 inch beam would have a considerable longer range than the Gods main gun if you can hit the main ship behind the shield decks which you do have an unprecedented ability to do. The shield decks because of their composite construction require a considerable amount of energy to be penetrated and not simply temperature. It takes an average of 11 main gun hits to destroy each shield deck though it has been recorded to take as many as 20 occasionally in the past battles my ship was in." Pan seemed to cock her head sideways as she watched Jack's face change through several expressions as he held up his hand again palm out for several seconds.

Jack
finally lowered his hand. "Ok, what would it take to get the 4 main guns we took off your ship to work?  You wanted something for the rest of your people to do."

Pan looked at Jack with a stone face for several seconds. Her eyes blinking several times before
she looked down at her pocket pad and started scratching on it. Jack watched her for a good 20 seconds and then turned away to his screens and started working on something himself. A point appeared on the navigation screen. "Navigation, I want you to plot a course to this cloud bank point as if we were entering the cloud to escape. We are going to see if we can sneak around and ambush that squadron before it gets to the entry point if they do not take the Admiral’s Ruse." Jack looked up at Pan still busy on her pad.

Jack tapped the comm controls on the arm of his chair and
opened his mouth when Pan suddenly spoke. "We can finish installing the weapons on your ship where they are emplaced but you will not be able to recharge them at the same time as your other weapons and then it will take the entire output of your ships generators including what we have added, 3 minutes to recharge them. It will take at least a week if not two to do the installation though it appears you have a better targeting system than the Gods giving you an advantage in ship to ship combat. The Gods rely on mass battle wall tactics that do not require targeting systems for ship to ship engagements."

"Ok." Tapping the comm pad again extinguishing the comm light. "Can you
upgrade the heat of the Gods main guns as well from 36 inches to say 24 or even 18? I don't care about destroying the shield decks I just want something that will penetrate a couple or three of the decks in one shot. Most of the battle cruisers have only 1, 2 or 3 decks and are very fast at turning them to face a threat. The battle ships with 4 decks and above and 6 guns and up are not much of a problem once we catch them from behind as slow as they seem at turning.”

Pan
seemed to frown as she bent her head down again to scratch on her pad for several seconds and then waited starring at it. Finally she looked up. "At 18 inches the beam will possible penetrate 3 shield decks but it is hard to tell if the beam will have enough power left to do much damage to the main ship behind. We are not comfortable reducing the bore down beyond 18 inches with the high possibility of failure."

"Well
, if I can get even a dozen shots out of it before it explodes it will be enough."

"I am sorry Captain Turner. But if it worked the number of shots is not a problem. The
problem is that it may slag the generating section of the barrel destroying the gun on the first shot. The reason it may take 2 to 3 weeks to complete the conversion, trying to design around the guns long standing weaknesses."

Jack closed his eyes shaking his head no as he took a deep breath and let it out
while rubbing his forehead before looking up. "Well Pan. The gun is not much use to me unless it can punch through the decks I need it to. See what your people can do and we do not have 2 weeks let alone 3."

Pan bowed deeply. "Your orders are my command Captain Turner." Then rushed out of the bridge.

"Navigation." Jack brought up the course plot screen and tapped a point that was in the middle of a large range of deep and meandering valleys with a large mountain ridge sticking above the clouds forming a barrier wall between them and the cloud entry point canyon of the slow transport squadron. Several large cloud fingers stuck up above the main cloud deck across the canyon from the ridge at the entry point. It was a perfect place for an ambush. "Plot me a course to this point. Comm, get me the Admiral and send the new course plot stat." Hitting the ship's internal comm panel on the arm of his chair. "Engine……"

"Captain Turner, how nice to hear from you so soon…"

Tapping the comm to engineering back off. "Change of plans Admiral. I am sending you my new course…."

"Course laid in Captain. ETA, 13 days, 19 hours and 42 minutes at 410 Gees sir."

"Pilot new course on plot, engage. Admiral, I am going to take out the advance enemy squadron so the transport squadron can escape. I need you to give me command of the recon and defense torpedoes at the entry point."

"What the hell Turner! No! Continue to your designated cloud entry point and leave the transport squadron to their fate. They have self-destruct devices that may even be able to take out one or two of the enemy battle cruisers if they are caught. Your job is to get your alien Battleship loot to where I ordered you to go a
s fast as possible."

"Sorry Admiral but we both know they don't stand a chance against the 3
well-armed Spider Battle Cruisers that are close enough to follow their trail down the shafts maze. Their armored decks give them a definite speed advantage in the cloud as well. I have the upgraded weapons and speed to keep them from even entering the maze. All I need is the mine torpedoes to tell me exactly where the spiders are and to get their attention with coordinated attacks up their asses."

"No Captain you will follow your orders. Now."

Jack stared at the Admiral for several seconds then shook his head. "Sorry Admiral but I can't leave them out there to die when I can prevent it without much risk to my ship."

The Admiral turned red as she counted to under her breath. "I am ordering you for the last time to return your
course to your designated entry point Captain Turner."

"Sorry Admiral I can't."

"Commander Wilson; you are now Captain of the Red Pepper. Take the ship to its designated entry point."

The Commander turned from the science station and looked at the screen with the Admiral on it. "Let me get this straight Admiral. Captain Turner has saved this fleet at least 3 times that I know of and this ship at least twice a
long with thousands of valuable refugees including technology that could win us this war. Now Captain Turner wants to test that technology that has been applied to our weapons to save valuable irreplaceable ships and their crews. But you are ordering him to go to some out of the way bubble to sit in quarantine. Until someone decides he does not have a ship full of spies and traitors and traps, before you even think of touching technology a thousand years more advanced than ours. Technology the Admiralty does not even know if it wants. Your orders do not make any sense Admiral and I do not understand them. Sorry."

"You do not have to understand Commander. You just have to obey orders."

"Sorry Admiral your transmission seems to be breaking up, I am obeying the orders of my Captain. Chain of command and all that sir."

"I am giving you new orders Commander to take command of that ship and…"

"What was that Admiral? You want me to follow the Chain of command? Yes I will obey Captain Turner’s orders to the letter as you command sir."

"Damn it! Who is the Second Officer their Commander?"

The Second officer looked up from the weapons station. "I am sorry Admiral but your transmission seems to be getting worse by the second. Did you ask me a question about the weapons the aliens are upgrading? Sir? If that is the case. In a week we should have the gun power of a dozen battleships with twice the power and range of the old 16 inch guns at a salvo a second along with our 5 inch guns having the range and penetration of the old 16s. In two weeks we should have the 4 God weapons hooked up with improvements to them as well. Don't worry Admiral, with the mine field torpedoes help, the spider Battle Cruiser Squadron does not stand a chance with Captain Turner in Command." He smiled from ear to ear.

The Admiral grew beet red starring from one officer to another around the Red Pepper's bridge until she
finally reached out and cut the transmission.

-------------------

Jack walked out of the large mostly empty control room for the torpedo loading and launch room above and down a long passageway until he came to an armored hatch in a section of curved bulkhead. Stepping through the open hatch into the power room of 2nd deck's number 6, 5 inch (now 3inch) turret he glanced at the generator that made the turret and its two guns independent of ships power. He almost tripped over the pair of thick power cables that ran through holes cut into the bulkhead next to the hatch and down the passageway to a large generator that the aliens had placed in the middle of the torpedo control room to increase the power available to the decks 5 inch (3inch)  and 3 inch (now 2inch) turrets. He stepped onto the turret's turntable and climbed up into the turret, past the breaches of the 2 guns hanging down toward their deck wells in the turrets lower basket, to stand beside the already filled seat of the gun captain's targeting sights. "Ok Chief, what is the problem?"

The Chief
smiled at Jack. "I have already sent a target out ahead of the ship at a range only the 16 inch guns could even try to hit." The sight was already tracking the little rocket streaking away doing spirals. The Chief pulled the trigger and the two guns barked in sequence as the massive barrels bucked in their slides, the breaches jerking back into the wells in the turn table basket made for them as Jack tried to keep from covering his ears. (The Game was never that loud). The second shot hit the target destroying it. "No problem Captain but watch this." The Chief slued the guns around to the side onto another target and pulled the trigger again and the guns bucked a half dozen times in a second long burst but missed each shot even as the targeting system tried to compensate as the target moved around the ship. The Chief tried 3 more second long six shot bursts and then held the trigger down to blow some 30 rounds at the flaccid lazy target and missed every shot. "That was at a range the 3 inch guns would easily hit." The chief took a deep breath.  "I think the additional shield coils you have installed in the bow is disrupting the sight alignment. I get it zeroed in straight ahead but when we shoot at a target to the sides over the coils we can’t hit the broad side of a planet. Even zeroing it in to the side the sight changes as we move from side to side. The only thing I can think of is those new coils for the shields are warping the beams. It only takes a fraction of a micron at the ranges we are trying to fire at now and those are powerful grave shield coils."