Battleship Destroyer (123 page)

Finally
as the bridge darkened he looked down and away and saw it. Saw the hole through the deck below him as if he was sitting outside the ship. Within seconds he was the ship as the hole started racing toward them.

Using the ships thrusters he centered the ship over the much too small hole, making sure it was perfectly strait as the atmosphere sucked them faster and faster toward the approaching hole.

"Weapons, I need that damn finger at 1100 cut back or the whole side of the ship is going to get ripped open or even twist the ship sideways, getting it and us permanently stuck. Concentrate all weapons on that finger."

With then ship now stable t
he weapons took another few seconds to be concentrated on the finger and even then Jack could not be sure it was doing any good with most of the light being reflected from the mirrored surface. Jack could see the crew huddling in the Core hull while crewmen in armored suits worked around the ship trying to keep it operating.

"Ten miles Captain. The ship is up to a hundred miles an hour and increasing." The ensign said. "I don't think we have to worry about slowing down and getting stuck by the time we hit the
hole sir. We should be doing a thousand miles an hour."  Even through the closed suit, the incredible noise from the atmosphere blowing out the hole was deafening  making it hard to hear the Ensign. A quick glance at atmospheric pressure outside the ship said it was 160 pounds per square inch and dropping.  Jack started concentrating on keeping the ship aligned with the jagged hole in the shell.

The sharp finger sticking into the hole started glowing red under the attack of all the ship's weapons but it still remained as the ship rushed toward it. At a thousand miles an hour it would rip open most of the compartments in the ship right down into the core hull. "Damn nothing we can do about it now. Godstar Help us all."

The ship slammed through the hole hitting the white hot finger and suddenly the ship was through the hole and sailing out across an empty void between the bubble and the dark cloud. All of space opened up around Jack as the screeching noise suddenly stopped as the quite of the vacuum of space engulfed them.

Hitting the ships side thrusters hoping they still had them. Jack watched the rapidly approaching h
atch as he tried to side step the huge four hundred foot wide plug that had a thin string still attached to the shell, slowing it down.

The hatch flew past leaving them in the middle of an expanding stream of hot gasses.

It took a few seconds to dawn on Jack that they made it as the ship
’s comms erupted in shouting. Too many talking to understand anyone for several minutes. Glancing around at the damage control board told Jack the ship was still in one peace with no major hull damage anywhere. Not believing it he turned back around and realized they were again in shallowing vacuum surrounded by gasses but the ship's hull was already starting to cool down.

The ships screens showed a beam of light from the hole in the bubble shinning out
past them across the void around them and down a tunnel. The stream of hot gasses was carving a tunnel deep into the cloud ahead as the ship rapidly followed. Small boats started zipping through the hole behind them.

"Engineering,
Chief, how long before we have engines? We are going someplace fast without any control."

"All we have right now
are maneuvering thrusters sir. It will be an hour at least before we can even get into the Engine rooms."

"Well do we have enough gasses to dump some of this hot air to help cool the ship?"

"Sorry sir we had to dump most of our reserves to keep from blowing the storage tanks as they heated up.  We are stripping cooling fins and array's off the boats now to hook up around the hull to give us some cooling but it will take a while before it does much good. The Good news is we still have plenty of reaction mass for the thrusters at least sir. Should be enough to get us back to the hulk. Their repair facilities are pretty good for a ship and should be a great help sir."

"Captain, most of our recon missiles have made it out of the bubble and are spreading around on search patterns. The only contact so far
is the hulk we captured sir. Most of the boats from the enemy ships inside the bubble are still sitting on the far side of the miniature star from the hole, waiting."

"Waiting? Well good
, we can't deal with them right now anyway. Leave a few recon missiles in the bubble to keep an eye on the Spiders. I don’t want any surprises." Jack got up from the Pilots seat and took the command chair back. "Number 2 you can take us out of this gas stream and head back for the hulk."

A scream suddenly penetrated the comm hurting his ears. He could not tell where it was coming from as he looked around and
finally spotted a crewman trying to get her helmet back on as her face turned red and started to boil up into blisters then her hair caught fire. Jack watched in horror as she tried to breath in after running out of breath screaming and fell to the deck dead as flames in a cloud started shooting out of her mouth as the blood and moister in her lungs started flashing to steam.

Slapping the ship wide comm. "Damn it people
! The air temp in the ship is still 300 degrees and above that outside the core in most compartments. Leave your suit helmets on. We just lost a crewman on the bridge because she took off her helmet. Captain's Orders, everyone leaves their helmets and gloves on until you receive frigging orders to take them off. No damn exceptions. Medic to the bridge." Slapping the ship wide comm off. He knew a medic would not do the crewman any good but he did not want the body staying on the bridge. "Exec. Get someone up to replace her and put her helmet on." He still could not believe anyone could be that stupid as he looked away from the gasses and steam still pouring out of her suit.

Turning back around trying to get the sight of the
dying woman out of his mind, he brought up the recon feeds. Jack could see why the Commanders voice was a bit odd. Jack could not believe what he was seeing either.

The ship slid out from the gas stream
that was creating a tunnel leading away from bright headlight opening in the bubble toward the center of the cloud. The ships thrusters heading them back toward the bubble and the waiting hulk and the crew they had left behind. Jack shook his head as the hulk came into sight of the ship's own sensors. "Well, we were trapped in a giant fish bowl so I should not be surprised at the Spider Hulk being trapped as well like a fly on flypaper." Then looking back at the bubble he just shook his head. Expecting a nice shinning bubble his eyes were greeted with what looked like a cross between a rock pile and an asteroid on steroids covering the outside of the Bubble lit up by the reflected light off the cloud around the bubble. "Ensign, can you get a few readings on that surface?"

Pan stepped up next to Jack. "It would facilitate transferring equipment and repairs to the ship Captain if you docked with the God
ship hulk."

"Ok, tell me you are in contact with the ship. I still cannot believe anyone is alive on that even though I just talked to Commander Murphy."

"Yes Captain, everyone is more than just alive. Noor can I detect anything wrong in spite of your misgivings. The shuttle boats that came out with us are following us back toward the hulk but are afraid that the spider ship is not yours."

Jack looked around at Pan for a second and shrugged his shoulders and smiled.
“Ok but you know it is ours. Right?” Turning back around. "Number one, you can dock with the hulk. Put our empty Portside boat lock hatch against their boat lock. Those air curtains should keep everything sealed while our hull cools down. Comm, inform the hulk of our intentions please. Weapons, you will have to rotate the main God guns on the port side out of the way. You can cover the trailing boats while you are at it. I don't want any of the enemy boats escaping when they find out they are not in hell after all." Turning to Pan. “Why did only half the boats come out with us?”

“The boats still in the bubble are God boats full of God Officers and Black Apes. They would have taken over your ship once they exited the bubble.” Pan turned away from Jack and sat back down looking at the screens.

“OK. But that does not explain why they are still there instead of trying to assault us now we have punched through.” Looking at Pan as she continued to ignore Jack. “Pan, what is going on? What did you do?”

Pan turned to look at Jack and said stiffly.  “The refugees
sabotaged the God assault boats before they left the ships so they could never leave the bubble.  They refuse to dock with the Godship. They are scarred and will not approach the Godship even though I have assured them that it is no longer a Godship.”

A few seconds later
as Jack stared at Pan, the Comm Officer turned to Jack. "They would like us to wait a few minutes before docking so they can clear out the lock and give our hull more time to cool a little sir."

"Tell them to take t
heir time Comm. Have them ready to set up ships services especially air-conditioning and system cooling fluids. Number One, hold off until the hulk gives you clearance.  Besides it will give me time to believe what I am looking at anyway." Jack continued to look at the Hulk with its upper empty hull shell that had once been the Ape cold storage decks embedded into the end of a short glass finger that had grown out of the side of a roughly mile round bubble that was attached on the side of the huge bubble that had trapped the ship only a few minutes before. He could see figures walking around the inside of the smaller clear bubble's wall or hull with no suits on. A central light glowed brightly in the middle of the bubble. “Pan, if you are positive that no Gods or Apes are on those boats, tell the refugees to land on the damn station so they can get the help they need. We are too hot to handle them right now.

"Oh ah Commander c
all out the marines just in case. And Weapons, make sure nothing alive makes it out of that damn hole in one piece." Jack spotted the Comm icon from sickbay flashing.

Pan spoke up. “I am sorry Captain Jack but the refugees will wait until you are on what you call the Spider ship before they will dock. They would rather die
trying to run getting lost in the cloud than turn themselves back over to slavery.

"Jack.” The Ensign turned around. “
I am getting readings of massive amounts of metals from the bubbles outer surface. Evidentially the lighter cloud debris was blown or thrown clear while the heaver metals stayed behind embedded in the mass of materiel fused to the surface of the crystal bubble. There are huge veins of rich metals in the material covering the bubble as far as my sensors reach.” She sounded like they had found a pot of gold in her excitement.

“Captain!” The ship’s doctor almost shouted over the comm. “We have lost 3 more people from the heat in the last 5 minutes. We need to get everyone off the ship until it cools down.”

Jack not seeing the big deal in the metals though finding it interesting, turned from Pan
as he glanced to the First Officer. “Well then let’s get docked and everyone taken care of before we lose anyone else.”

The body of the crewman was taken out by the paramedics
as Jack shook his head trying not to throw up. “Comm, tell the Commander we are docking now even if all the locks have boats in them. We have people roasting alive in the ship.”

One of the big transfer boats slid out of the
Spider hulk and the Red Pepper slid up to the lock. Mooring clamps grasped the ship around the lock while lines were passed to hold the ship securely in place. The bow of the Red Pepper pointed at the bubble placing the docking locks, gravity deck to gravity deck.

Jack
dropped quickly down to the boat bay and walked from the ship into the hulk and was greeted by the Marine Commander dressed in a jump suit. Jack smiled motioning him to stay away trying not to look like he suddenly felt. The last time he was in one of the Spider Battle cruisers boat locks, they were being shot at and several of his new friends and crew had been killed in front of him. The big red head’s death still hurting. He could see the heat waves still radiating off his suit as he opened his helmet's visor. "Best stay back Commander until my suit cools down. I would appreciate it if you could allow my crew to evacuate the ship until it has had time to cool off. OH and the refugee boats approaching are from several ships that have surrendered. Make sure they stay isolated for now. God Captain's and Officers could be amongst them. We need to make sure they don't try to pull something." Jack’s steps seam to hiss as his hot boots pressed down onto the deck leaving black foot prints. He was followed by marines and Red Apes spreading out across the bay on missions Jack had ordered to make sure the ship was still in their hands as teams with fire hoses suddenly appeared spraying the suits down with water creating clouds of steam spreading into the air with streams of water flowing toward the drains.

Jack closed his faceplate just in time to keep
the fog spray of water out of his suit as he was deluged by two hoses. Raising his arms he turned around to make sure they covered his entire suit. After a good minute he waved them away and opened his faceplate again, took a deep breath of cool air and smiled. Shaking his head he turned around to look back into the Red Pepper and got a wave of heat washing over his face from inside the ship’s boat bay. He watched one of the hose teams cross into the boat bay creating a cloud of steam only to rapidly retreat again when the 300 degree air hit them. "Pan, could your counterpart find some huge fans to start circulating some cool air into the ship please." He could already see heat waves in the air along the overhead rushing into the hulk and into the air circulation intakes but the cool air sliding back into the ship was hugging the deck creating a foot thick layer as it spread across the bay. The hose teams lined up along the edge of the connecting bays as more and more people started filing off the ship to get away from the heat.