Battleship Destroyer (27 page)

The Commanders mouth dropped open without saying anything as he stared at Jack.

Jack looked around the bridge settling on the Captain. His excitement overwhelming his better judgment and fear. "We need time to scrap our water pistol engines and build comparable Blackhole drive engines and hotter weapons in the numbers that even they can't even dream about." Turning to look at a bridge that had their full attention focused on him. Jack swallowed. His excitement was starting to quickly wan but he was much too hungry to care if he did get yelled at and kicked off the bridge. He could at least get chow. "I can't be the only one that has seen the obvious. How easy a Blackhole drive is to make now that we have seen theirs working." Looking up at the overhead at nothing in particular as his eyes glazed over. "Hell; we can now make Blackhole drive coils to upgrade the drive engines on this ship. Making us as fast as a Battleship. Hell we could refit the whole battleship fleet in only a few months back at the fleet’s construction base at The Rock so we could at least retreat if we needed to and maybe even out flank them. And as far as the weapons, there are a dozen ways to crank up the heat in our lasers now that we know we have to."

The Commander
closed his mouth, a grin crossing his face in satisfaction. "You just changed the subject Turner because you can't explain and answer my question."

Looking down Jack frowned and then chuckled. "
It does not mater anyway. We are dead if we attack. We need to run like rabbits before they realize we are here and our proverbial asses are cooked with the first shots. As it stands now, they will be able to sit just out of our gun and torpedo ranges and destroy our fleet and we will be too damn slow to either charge close enough for our weapons to damage them or out run them when it finally becomes obvious that we are losing."

Looking back at the
Commander. "Sorry sir but I'm not particularly hungry anymore now that I know we have lost the battle before it even begins. If you want to have that discussions on gravity coils now, just tell me how remedial you want to begin but the simplistic answer is that gravity waves have mass." Jack looked at the red faced Commander for several seconds without getting a response. "Then by your leave sir." Turned and headed for the hatch.

"Stop right there
! Turner!" The Captain was already out of her chair and walking toward Jack.  Jack turned around not really interested but sure he was going to catch hell for his outburst that no one was sure to believe. "Are you sure about that Black hole drive 1st class Turner?"

"Of
course not sir. I was just babbling. After all I am just a lowly 2nd class tech Captain sir. Oh sorry sir I was just promoted to 1st class. I guess I am too stupid to even remember what rank I am."

"Cut the
crap sarcasm boy! I just looked at your file including unbelievable scores on every technical test the Navy has given you that included a bunch of tests I have never seen them give recruits before. Most of which I remember taking in my career only after I had been through 4 Universities and did not do half as well. Scores that the Personnel Assignment Department evidentially did not believe either or you would not be here. We are headed for a battle that we are outnumbered at least 3 to 1 according to the latest intelligence (which you were not supposed to see,) in desperation because our President thinks we have no choice while our senior Admiral has an agenda all his own and could not care if we survive or not. An Admiralty Fleet Command that believes we at least have ships and weapons parity enough to hurt and slow them down buying us time without doing too much damage to the fleet. Only now we find out we have neither. Have you figured out how to make this massless drive, what you call, a Black Hole engine or not?"

"Yes sir. It is simple Physics sir. A child could make one
now that we know for sure they exist and seen one up close operating. The enemy has given us everything we need now but the blueprints. Especially as much as Pop talked about the different theory and possibilities for producing one." Jack looked at the enemy ship still frozen on the screen. "They have shown us how theirs work weather they wanted to or not." Pointing at the screen. "It is all right there in front of your eyes for all to see. Luckily, now we know our latest engine is only one little upgrade step from a Blackhole drive. All we need is time. Time we don't have now unless we retreat and run like hell. Or they will easily catch us and slaughter the fleet while we shine our little flashlights trying to entertain and impress them with a light show."

The Captain
walked up to Jack. "And it is so easy you can show us how to design a basic black hole engine? The principles and theory? "

Jack looked at the Captain and smiled as he shrugged his shoulders. "Shure thing Captain. Not
just show you the basics. Once upon a time I had Doctorates in both Thrust Engine Design Engineering and Manufacturing thanks to my grandfather not taking no for an answer. I can design the whole damn engine and test it on the government's Prime Triple X simulation program."

"What!
How the hell could you know about? No, never mind." The Captain placed her nose up close to Jack's.
HowH
"How long would that take?"

"How long? Well.
” Starving to death again, all he wanted to do was get the hell out of there to chow and answering the Captain was the fastest way to do that. Besides the old bag reminded him of his Grandfather now that she was close up in the dim light of the bridge. He had been missing the question grilling’s from Pop as well as the arguments on most of his advanced school work topics anyway. Demanding details and thinking on his feet to support his sometime asinine statements. Especially when Pop had caught him by surprise with an off the wall question while he was doing or working on something entirely different and then grading on his statement accuracies. “I could have the basic proof of concept design done in a few hours but a basic production model with all the production and maintenance issues worked out would take quite a bit longer. A few days, couple weeks at most since our existing engine is so close to being one already. All I have to do is upgrade the basic coils to create the black holes and strengthen the frame to support the stresses and then it is simply software the Triple X- A.I. can take care of in a few hours."

The Captain grabbed ahold of Jacks arm. "Good! W
e don't have much time. Come with me." And then to the Commander. "Number One. You have the Conn. Hopefully our Mr. Turner can convince our attack fleet Admiral Binghamton that we are not as desperate as we thought and turn his Battleship fleet around." As she headed for the hatch she stopped. Turned to the Ensign that showed Jack the video as she looked on in shock. Come along Ensign. I have never figured out why you insist on wearing a stupid jacket all the time but now you can lend it to Turner and take your insignia off it. He needs an escort in officer’s country anyway so you may as well take responsibility for his wellbeing and safety now while you are at it. Guard him with your life and don’t let him out of your sight for any reason. He has a psych stamped red flag in his file for some reason. If it is for depression I don’t' want him committing suicide simply because he gets overwhelmed with all the changes and the stresses. Nor do I want him going Psycho if that is his problem." The Captain pushed Jack toward the Ensign. "That is right Ensign. You have a Phycology Degree don't you?  Makes you the perfect rating sitter for First Class Gravtech Turner here."

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

Jack was led into a hug
e
conference compartment surrounded by screens by the Ensign. A big conference table sat at the center with electronics at each seat around it. Other seats in tears lining the bulkheads with their own controls on their arms and fold out see through screens. The Ensign sat Jack down at the back of the long table at the main speaker’s seat notched well into the table with extra screens around it in the table top than the rest of the seats had.

"Get to work designing
an engine. I have a few engineering degrees myself so I will know if you just  put a bunch of crap up there so don't even try." She straightened the jacket around Jacks shoulders and then stepped back to look at him. It was a tight fit in his arms but with her barreled chest it at least could be fastened in front and noticed him starring at her huge flattened lump around her chest, now at his eye level. She had her breasts strapped in tight to her chest with her bra designed to hide them and not lift and separate and push them out as fare as they could go like most women did. No, her breasts were as flat as she could make them. The last thing she wanted was for anyone to know she had them let alone show them off. And Jack was starting to piss her off looking at them. The reason why she wore the jacket in the first place, for double protection. "Mr. Turner!" she said with disgust.  "You only have an hour at most before the Admiral and every propulsion expert on this ship shows up for you to wow with your bullshit. I know Admiral Halsey is not going to put up with any bullshit and if Admiral Binghamton is anything like his reputation, you had better come through big time or you will be going out the nearest airlock. Do you understand? You can't get away with your brothers brand of bullshit here." Then she noticed that he wasn't ogling her breasts but looking completely baffled at them as he seemed to be ignoring her. Shaking her head disgustedly "Turner!  Get to work."

Jack's eyes slowly looked up at her eyes.
"Oh ok. But do I know you?" He said before his eyes turned into the vacant stare of someone not really present let alone seeing much again. "Ya... Sure Ensign." She suddenly realized that she had been leading a zombie around the passageways for the last half of the trip here. She turned the table's next chair a few feet from Jack on the shoulder of the table around to sit in. The distance finally letting her relax a little. His eyes did not follow her but a few seconds after she left his direct sight, he slowly turned around facing forward in the seat and laid back staring out across the table at the top corner of the compartment.

For a half hour Jack sat staring off at nothing and then his eyes started moving like he was having a dream
even though his eyes where wide open.

"My god
, are you sleeping with your fricking eyes open?" Again she was disgusted at the rating sitting before her for wasting her time like all the other times, before betraying her. But then she suddenly felt sorry for him, when the Captain found out he was just as big a moron as his family on the Turner Joy had thought he was his ass would be cooked. And she would be there to see it. Elation disappeared as disappointment washed over her. Why had she thought he was smart when she had classes with him so many years ago?  But now he did not even recognize her so how smart could he be. How satisfying would taking her pain out on him be if he did not even remember her. Tears of frustration started down her cheeks.

She wanted to slap him silly and
stun him repeatedly at the same time. How the hell could she have felt sorry for the ass hole after what he had done to her?  But then why the hell did she fallow him into the damn Navy seeking revenge in the first place. Only to lose him in the shuffle of recruits amongst hundreds of ships. Then to have him find her even if it was accidental only to not even recognize her. She could kill him for that simple reason not to mention what he had done to her years before.

S
he tried to wipe away the confused tears in her eyes. The Admiral would certainly throw him in the brig if not completely off the ship before she was able to get even with him if she ever could. It would take years of torturing him to even get a little payback. Torturing him in The Game she had been enjoying for years just was never enough. And then he went and gave her his damn ships! She thrust the confusing thoughts away. More determined than ever. Torture she knew she would enjoy even more in person if he would just remember her damn name and who she was. But it was not the same if she had to tell him her name. And now that ass hole was sleeping. Remembering boot ship training she pulled out her stun gun. "This will teach you to sleep asshole." She started to reach forward with her stun gun in her hand. A devilish smile crossing her face.

Turning his head and glancing at her with a frown. "Hell, I have been half asleep since I joined the navy." Then smi
ling he turned back to look around at the table in front of him. "Godstar, this looks just like the conference room in, in, The Game, when planning campaigns or picking sides for a contest battle. Only I don't think anyone I know is going to show up but then I usually don't know half of the Captain's anyway or the Admiral usually sitting here. It is getting harder by the day to tell the difference except reality is a lot more boring. I just wish I had time to go back in once in a while." A few seconds later he reached out and touched a spot on the table and then several more and a virtual keyboard sprang to life from the center table top screen in front of him. He started hitting icons across the table and in the air around him as more screens and virtual controls appeared around him. The chair straightened up and raised a little to support his back without obstructing his arm movements.

The Ensigns mouth dropped open
as she let her arm with the stun gun drop between her legs. The weight of the gun and her hand against her leg pushed her thumb down on the trigger and the Gun zapped her leg making her try to scream as her hand and thumb contracted on the trigger and her leg started shaking and kicking and half her body jerking around like a rag dole on the edge of the chair. She continued to zap herself until her arm jerked from between her legs and her thumb was finally knocked off the stun gun, releasing the trigger. She sat with her leg and the arm (that was touching the leg) hanging paralyzed and numb as she slumped down half out of the chair trying to catch her breath, her face scrunching up into strange shapes with pain as tears streamed down her face.  Trying to move her other leg and arm to keep from falling out of the chair completely as the stun gun clattered to the deck.