Battleship Destroyer (38 page)

T
urning around the Chief Engineer smiled down at Jack. "Mr. Turner, maybe it would be a good idea if you went over exactly what the differences are between these new Warp Engines of yours, the enemy’s engine, the first Blackhole engine you designed and our current battleship engines that are already obsolete. Leave out the PH.D. crap details and just keep it grade school basics. It should put everyone in the room on the same page to start with. Should speed things up a bit."

Jack
's face slowly regained some color as he frowned. His fingers and hands started slowly moving as he tried to get his mind working again after the shock but finally came to a dead stop as he turned around and stared at the Chief. Shaking his head, a week smile crossed his face. "Damn! You do know Pop. He always said that if you can't explain something for a grade-schooler to understand, you don't know what you're talking about. His favorite was. "Getting back to grade school basics can salve most problems." I always thought that old fart was a little crazy but here it goes." Frowning as he thought of the dead crew. "I can't seem to concentrate on anything anyway right now. How could anyone send a ship and an entire crew to their deaths just to test a theory? But then I lost many ships and crews testing theories and strategies, but it was in The Game and not real people." Then a horrible thought accrued to Jack. "Godstar! We almost went up in a Blackhole explosion when we lit off the engine yesterday." Swallowing hard.

"That was no theory Mr. Turner. It was a real engine that is going to work one way or another." The Captain said scrawling.
  "The only regret now, is that you tell me that it was a complete waste of time and lives thanks to the Esteemed Director. I want a report when you are finished here on exactly what sensors should have been on and around that test boat when it blew up that could have possibly made the test worth their lives. I am going to use that at the Directors Court-martial."

"Jack
, the engine. We need that engine." The Ensign said softly placing her hand on his leg as she knelt beside him to hide from most of the compartment but where he could still see her breasts.

And then
looking over the top of her he caught sight of everyone in the room again even though most were not looking at him. Jack started slinking back down the chair as he leaned back as far out of sight as possible. "Ah  ... it. Well.  The... You want me... To tell everyone?" Fear sprang back into his face.

"Jack! No
. Just tell me." The ensign leaned over as she squatted next to Jack. "Look at me Jack. She turned his head around to look her in her eyes and smiled. "Tell me about the engines Jack and keep it simple for dump old me.  Ok?"

Jack looked into her eyes and the fear started to leave them. Smiling he looked down at her breasts and then
jerked them back up with fear starting to cross his face only to see her approving eyes before looking back at the screens. Looking away he did not see her reach for her Taser without thinking or the shock as she realize she would Taser herself again before she ever touched Jack with it.  Smiling weekly again and shaking his head Jack’s fingers started flying over the console again as he spoke. "You are not dumb or stupid. Our standard Propulsion engines for the last two hundred and fifty years has used propulsion coils to push large masses of reaction fluids down a tube to be expelled at many times the speed of light producing thrust." An engine cut in half appeared in the middle of the compartment over everyone's head. "Our latest engine for the Battleships uses propulsion coils just short of powerful enough to produce miniature black holes as they compress and fling the reaction mass down the tube and out the other end so hot, the molecules break down into atoms ." The virtual engine showed fluid being shot in to one end of the engine and out the other end as hot particles spreading out behind.

"
When the new Battleship engine coils were being tested, they were over powered during a stress test and actually produced an artificial black hole in the laboratory. A very nasty accident that killed a lot of people. According to an old magazine article in Space & Technology week and then I just saw a more detailed report in what the Refugee Compartment group has that is a bit shocking."

Jack sat back staring at the overhead for several seconds before frowning and
continuing. "Anyway. This brought up the theory that it could be possible to create artificial mass using small black holes that would be so massive that it would be impossible to move or change their velocity, providing something solid for the drive coils to push or pull against to create incredible thrust without using physical mass. But the preliminary calculations pointed to the fact that the massive black holes would grab the engine as well making pushing against them almost impossible and possibly destroy the engines from the gravitational effects of the moving black holes tearing the engine apart. The theory was not taken seriously sighting basic conservation of momentum issues as well."  

"
What I noticed when I saw the latest video of the enemy ships was that the theory was correct. The enemy was using the Blackhole engine drive and that the black holes where actually moving out the back of the engines and not just disappearing as they reached the end of the engine to get around one of its biggest problems of releasing any energy collected while the black hole is in existence destroying the engine and ship. They get around this by strictly controlling what little goes into the black hole and then releasing it far enough away from the engine to keep from damaging anything vital. The evidence being obvious now. It simply meant the enemy was not using massive million ton black holes in their drive engines but smaller thousand ton sized black holes easy to move requiring what looks like a hugely thick engine casing that must help in keep it together from what designing our own engine has shown."

The
Blackhole engine appeared as Jack talked. “Our Blackhole engine is simply smaller to fit our battleships but its power output is damn weak and require specially constructed grav-coils and as the Admiral pointed out, could take some time to create a working mass production engine. But the Admiral in his infinite stupidity, gave me another idea that does not require moving the black holes down the engine and all the forces and moving stresses." Jack glanced at the ensigns eyes and continued. "By keeping micro black holes static, fixed to the ship or engine, we can feed subatomic particles across the black holes to be accelerated and create thrust. Using our deck gravity coils to boost the engines original drive coils (already just short of making their own Blackholes) to actually make mini Blackholes, we can warp Ion particles across from Blackhole to Blackhole down the tube, reaching undreamed of exhaust velocities close if not too the speed of gravity creating massive amounts of thrust using practically no fuel, comparatively speaking. Without the conservation of motion issues and massive reinforcing needed for the enemies black hole drive."

Jack smiled. "I think we are skipping a generation Chief
. Going from a mass drive engine with coils on the verge of creating black holes to building new drive coils slightly more powerful to make a pitiful Blackhole drive. Then bypassing that generation all together by upgrading the existing engines drive coils to create an Ion drive." Becoming thoughtful Jack smiled again turning, his hands started flying across the keys again bringing up the shuttle engine that blew up. Running the data through several times, he started shaking his head.

"That's it Chief! That's what the problem is.
Why didn't I see this before? It is so obvious now that I know what the problem is." Turning to look at the Ensign and then the Engineering Chief. "The Battleship drive coils are not on the verge of creating black holes but ARE creating proto-Blackholes that are causing the burps when the original engines are at idle, until they have enough mass going through them to absorb the gravcoil power before proto-Blackholes can start forming. The new engine uses deck coils to magnify the base power from the main drive coils already in the engine to produce and control the mini black holes to accelerate the ion particle. It is these same Deck Gravity coils that are magnifying the proto black holes created by the main coils when they form and then combine the proto black hole with the mini black hole that increases the size of the combined black hole exponentially causing it to grab onto the surrounding mini black holes and any nearby additional magnified proto black holes to start chain reactions in random unpredictable surges until a black hole is big enough to suck in all surrounding matter and destroy the engine and then the ship." 

Jack leaned back placing his hands behind his head as he smiled and looked around satisfied with himself and saw everyone staring at him
again. Most of them baffled. Though a few smiled thoughtfully.

Though happy with himself, with all the eyes on him he
immediately started slowly sliding back down the chair as shear panic crossed his face and froze there for several seconds. Then his eyes started darting around looking for a place to hide before they dropped to the deck. "Ah… I. It… Daaa..."

"No Jack!"  The ensign said. "Everyone is just looking at my boobs. Not you."

Jack looked into her eyes, fright covering his face.

"Jack! They are just looking at my boobs. Look Jack. Look at my boobs." She reached out and pushed his head down so he had to look at her boobs
as a nipple popped out. "See Jack. No one cares about you or what you are doing. No one is going to criticize our yell at you. Tell the Chief what we have to do to fix the engine before someone else dies."

"Your boobs are huge." Jack licked his lips and started to
relax as he stared at her protruding nipple as if he had never seen one before and then a thought occurred to him. "Before someone else dies?" Closing his eyes his face became grim. "It is my fault those crewmen died because I could not see what was staring me in the face." Shaking his head frowning. Suddenly his fears seamed so pitiful.

The Captain could not believe what
she was seeing. "Ensign what the hell are you doing?"

The Ensign
stood up turned around putting her hand on Jacks shoulder so he could not go anywhere as she tried to cover her boobs back up and getting close to the Captain's ear. Speaking softly. "You said yourself his Grandfather is a perfectionist, domineering ass hole. I am from his ship and let me tell you. So are his parents and his brother was a lying bully. Luckily they ignored him most of the time except to criticize him when they did notice him even if they had to invent something.  He has learned to shut down when noticed simply to avoid being criticized and belittled as not good enough. Yes he is in the Navy and a great mind but he is still a 10 year old boy afraid of his own shadow or of being noticed and still thinking that the world orbits around him and sees his every action. I am just getting his mind off of the people around him and on me so he can function. I am trying to let him hide behind me.  Without making it too obvious sir. Which would be devastatingly embarrassing for him if he figures it out or is told." She turned back around and started screaming. "I told you asshole perverts to stop staring at my boobs!"

The Cap
tain smiled and shook her head as she remembered seeing him trying to make up his mind whether to run or hide so many times since she first laid eyes on him. She did not bother to look down around the Ensign to look at him again and the new more mature expression on his face. "You heard the lady, the next crewman that even looks in the direction of her boobs gets court-martialed." Her voice boomed across the compartment.

The ensign
had bent back down to talk with Jack who did not even look at her as tears ran down his grim stone face.

The Ensign turned Jack's face back around to look at her
.  He finally looked into the Ensign's eyes and finally smiled painfully. She did not notice that the scared child was gone as he slowly continued. "It is my fault those people died." Taking a deep breath. "Yes it is simple now that I know what the problem is." Disgust in his voice. "Fact is, I am surprised we had not stumbled onto the cure since we have been shooting in the dark and hopping for the best for days or should I say decades for certain other people. But then this fix is a little peculiar even if it is so damn simple." Jack pulled himself back up to the console and started typing. "All we have to do is turn every odd numbered main propulsion coil's electromagnetic poles around so the alternating coils grav fields cancel each other out and two coils do not combine to produce proto black holes that affect the micro black holes while still producing the basic power needed for the deck gravity coils to do the rest of the work." The engine hanging over the middle of the compartment suddenly came to life spewing out a hair fine stream of particles. The thrust readout quickly built to hundreds of millions of TONs of thrust.

The Chief's mouth dropped.
"Shit; at this thrust level our ships will run rings around their ships as if they were standing still Captain."

Jack ran it down to idle than back up to full thrust and back again. Letting it sit at idle for a few minut
es purring before ramming it back up to full power again several time and then leaving it at idle. "We can do the same for the old engines if you don't upgrade them to get rid of the burping at idle if anyone is interested.

Jack sat
there smiling. A half hour later it was still running smoothly even after running it up and down the thrust scale continuously. Jack sat with his hand behind his head monitoring the readouts in front of him taking occasional peeks at the Ensigns big blue eyes and then around him. The mass of strange people did not scare him anymore after blaming himself for the deaths of the boat crew after listening and watching them work right up until they died on the test recordings for the sixth time and wishing someone would punish him for what he had not done in time. Yell at him, hit him, do something to make him forget. But no one seemed to care what he had done as they worked at their consoles finalizing the design and what needed to be done. They should be condemning him but they didn't. They should be starring hateful holes through him but they were far too busy with their own problems to care about his.