Battleship Destroyer (115 page)

The Red Pepper raced out of the cloud and thrusting at 1200 Gees it changed
course while adding just enough velocity before it entered the cloud band on the other side of the clearing to take it through the cloud to the next clear passage heading deeper into the cloud and safety. Upon reaching the end Jack turned the ship around and proceeded back through the tunnels vacuum getting up close to the speed of light. They came back out next to the squadron exactly an hour after they had left.

"Commander, put your ship with the best guns in the lead to take out rocks that stray into the tunnel and punch it. The tunnel has a damn good vacuum in it and you should make good time even with one engine. Your trailing ship can cross a couple of its main gun beams just to one side of the tunnel to collapse the tunnels entrance making it hard for the enemy to find even if they make it this far."

The two ships that was all that was left of the squadron edged up to the tunnels entrance. "Captain Turner. You have got to be kidding. I can't take my ships into that and half the directions you sent over do not make any sense. Besides that tunnel could collapse and squish my ships or leave us stranded half way between clear areas. No I will not. You will take me and my crews aboard your ship and get us out of here now. And that is an order. Besides we split the hulks crew between us and it has gotten damn crowded and I do not want to spend the next couple of weeks pushing through to the check point  as crowded as this ship is."

"Sorry Commander for your inconvenience
with a hundred or so extra crewmen but I have about 4,000 crewmen and alien refugees aboard now with another 1200 to pick up from the hulk I just killed and yet another transport's surviving crew to pick up half way back toward the enemy fleet so quit being such a baby." Jack smiled at the Commander. “I was not attached to your little squadron so I do have a choice though I can tell you that I would still have told you to stuff it if the Admiral had attached me to you. You did a nice job retrieving the hulks surviving crew and making repairs on your two ships. Now take your ships down that tunnel to safety or stay here until the Spiders catch and kill you. I don't care. I have done my duty to you and your squadron. The decision is up to you. Now I have duty and work to do elsewhere. Goodbye Commodore and good luck. Captain Turner out."

The Red Pepper slid up a few miles from
the Spider hulk and the two big transports backed up to an open tank hatch and started shoving large roughly 40 foot long by 8 foot wide and tall containers out their back hatches into the ships old reaction mass tanks which took less than a minute and then rushed back to the hulk for another load. A minute to make the trip and dock, a minute to reload and another minute to return and every 4 minutes another load of cargo containers were dumped into the ship by each of the two human piloted transports not worried about making a few bangs or dents. The Red Peppers large Assault Shuttles and the hulks 2 Assault Shuttles took a little longer to make their round trips to dump their containers into tanks with the alien pilots at their helms.

Jack walked out into the bird cage of the 2nd mess and sat down eating while he watched the boats shuttling between the ship and the hulk.
It had been an hour and they were still going strong. Shaking his head. Things were going to get damn crowded real soon. Most of the tanks had been covered by Geebunks. Now the tanks were quickly filling with cargo, he had no clue as to where to put the Geebunks.

Pan walked up to Jack's table with a smaller pair of carbon copies
beside her. She bowed. "Captain Turner I would like to introduce you to my children. Ban and Leep." She pointed first to the young girl and then the young boy.  "I hold you personally responsible for rescuing them and pledge my family's lives to you Captain." She and the children bowed almost to the deck then turned and started to leave.

"Pan, I am glad and honored to meet your kids. Please join me for a few minutes and explain what is going on with the crew and the hulk and all the cargo."

Pan dismissed her kids and sat down across from Jack. "Captain, you know why or you would not have allowed the ship to stay so long with the Godfleet rushing in and one of your transports still needing rescued. Your real questions are what cargo and how long until we are done." Pan looked over at the hulk as another transport left it to be replaced by a shuttle. "My answer is that the more we take from this hulk the easier and more likely humans are to win and survive and of course all us aliens along with our new found freedoms." Pan bowed her head briefly. "How much time do you need to rescue your transport's crew Captain? How long can you give my people to strip the hulk Captain?"

"Well now. If it is that important why not simply repair the engines and fly it out of here Pan?"

"Your gunners are very good at hitting their targets Captain. The engines are scrap." Looking at Jack she frowned copying one of Jacks expressions as best as she could. "Even if they were not scrap, taking the whole ship or what is left of it is not a good idea. The Gods go to great lengths to keep their ships from falling into enemy hands. It is impossible to find all the traps they have built into their ships over 10,000 years. If nothing else but a simple trip that detonates the fusion cores in the middle of an enemy base or a beacon that allows them to find your main ship yards when you try to strip the hulk and without your shipyards you lose. There are many ways to lose a war other than taking on the enemy Battleship Wall."

"Well then Pan. I can give you 3 more hours or we risk not getting the transport crew out.
" Jack looked at Pan waiting for a request for more time but Pan just looked at Jack as Jack looked at her and waited.

Finally
Pan spoke.  "Thank you Captain. We will get most of what we need in that time period."

Expecting a good old human negotiation for more time.
"Good, but what do you mean most. What would you get if I give you say, another hour?"

Pan looked at Jack for a few seconds and then. "Some equipment takes time to disconnect without damaging it.  We are also using as much time as we can to produce
materials in the ships factory."

Jacks eyes got big. "That hulk has some
kind of factory aboard it?  Screw the materials. Take the damn factory if it will fit in the ship Pan."

"My apologies Captain but it would take at least 10 hours
to get the basics and days to strip all the equipment that makes up the factory though the standard cargo box sized modules would only take up most of the tanks on a couple of decks."

"Ok… What exactly does the factory make Pan?"

"Amongst other things, it produces the gas we use to create the crystal armored structures that repair the ship's hull and decks and upgraded your guns. It also produces the Ape combat blast guns along with their power packs and a lot more. It also produces most of the consumables and replacement parts the ship uses. Fact is Captain, the factory is the only major piece of equipment that has constantly been upgraded since the ship was built thousands of years ago."

"Ok
... Show me what you are talking about on that pad of yours. The factory equipment and some of the processes. "

Pan pulled out her pad and
laid it down on the table then tapped the face and a three dimensional picture of the factory's modules materialized over the table. "The Factory consists of many interconnected modules responsible for specific areas of production. From chemical to machining." Pan continued to run down what the different modules did as well as their processes as they appeared above the table.

Finally
Jack held up his hand shaking his head no. "Damn! I have several degrees in manufacturing processes and half of what you are showing me looks to be a good thousand years in advance of anything we have outside the lab."  Jack stood up and walked over to the ports as a transport flew past headed for the hulk again. "Pan, I want you to put together a volunteer crew to stay on the hulk after we leave in 3 hours and finish disassembling the factory for us to come back later to pick up." Turning back to Pan. "I also need you to gather a cross section of all the God technology and load it into two of the Assault Shuttles with volunteers that can explain the technology to human engineers. I am going to send them to catch up to the transports already leaving so at least some of this gets to The Rock to be used. We need to launch the Assault Shuttles as soon as possible in order to catch them. I will be on the bridge making arrangements for them to be picked up." Jack walked out leaving half his food still on the plate. Pan scribbling and talking to her pad still sitting at the table for another Quarter hour.

The Commodore was happy when Jack
commed him. “Captain Turner, your tunnel worked great. I cannot believe we made so much distance in such a short time. We are getting ready to enter the next tunnel as soon as the hulls cool down."

"Good to hear that Commodore but I need you to hold your position so a pair of boats can catch up to you.
They will know were the entrance to the tunnel you closed up is and be able to use it. I am sending you a sample of as much of the alien technology as we can get on board the boats." The Commodore's mouth dropped open again. "We have run across a factory aboard the alien hulk that is a thousand years ahead of anything we have. It is going to take at least 10 hours to pull it out.  I am relying on you to get the samples of what we have found so far to The Rock just in case we don't make it out before that damn enemy fleet catches us."

"No Captain. I am not waiting around here for anyone, especially a bunch of junk."

"Commodore, thousands of people have paid with their lives for what you call junk. This junk represents technology that can save the Republic and the human race by giving us the weapons to defeat the God Battleships. I am giving you orders in the name of Admiral Halsey to wait and take this junk to The Rock. I am also sending copies of that order to The Rock and the Admiral in multiple message torpedoes. If you show up without this junk you will face being executed for treason as well as costing the human race the war and extinction if my ship fails to survive."

"How dare you threaten me you little
shit? I will have your...”

"You will have nothing if you fail to wait for these
Spider Assault boats that will simply clamp onto the outside of your hull since they are too big to get into your locks. The boats themselves are examples of a lot of advanced technology.  You will also treat the alien engineers and experts I am sending with them as respected guests and not simply throw them in cells. The Red Apes and Marines I am sending with them will insure that. They can lay waist to your whole ship if you try shitting on my people. The boats should be with you in less than an hour. Even if they are late, you will wait for them Commodore. Besides, they will have kits to upgrade your guns during your trip to The Rock amongst other things just in case something gets past me."

"I do not have to lis
ten to any orders from you. I out rank you moron."

"Well then let me just say this. You don't pick them up leaving them stranded to starve and die and I will kill you myself if I survive."

"Up yours Captain but I will wait an hour. Out."

Jack turned from the blank screen and headed for
one of the tanks Pan was using to collect the items they were sending. 

Jack sat studying the tactical screen showing the maze of clear passageways running around the hundreds of connected clouds forming the edges of the nebula in that area. Most of the passageways led to dead ends or back onto themselves.  The Spider fleet was in the process of trying to fallow the squadron back
through the maze to the one passageway that would allow them to catch up to the squadron and even find the check point. Jack had gone out of his way to confuse the process by spending a couple of hours sending the Red Pepper and the ship's boats around the passageways in a calculated pattern to confuse the Spiders. He watched the Spider fleet spread itself out around the maze following his trails with some satisfaction.

One squadron of 3 Spider Battle
cruisers Jack was keeping a close watch on worked their way around the bend of passageway with a short slit running back away from the bend into a thick cloud.  Jack had planted a beacon farther around the bend to get their attention after they made the corner.

Jack smiled as the 3 Spiders spotted the beacon and stopped to look it over. "Number One, half ahead and get us out of this cloud. Weapons, prepare to fire on my command. Target the trailing ship first then split the guns on the other two at my command.

The Red Pepper flew out of the split between two clouds into full view of the enemy. "Fire all guns!"

The ship bringing up the rear in the Spider Command ship position disintegrated behind its still perfectly intact shield as every enhanced gun on the Red Pepper pummeled the hapless Spider Battle Cruiser.  The guns and engines flying off in all directions.

"Weapons, Re-task the guns."
The Red Pepper sailed out into the clear as both remaining Spiders started to disintegrate behind their shields. The four36 (27)s firing every 5 seconds, the twelve 16(8)s firing like the 5(3) had been firing at twice a second, while the 5(3)s looked like machine guns. The 3(2) quads just added to the bedlam firing so fast you could not tell there was a gap between shots with the naked eye.