Battleship Destroyer (45 page)

The shuttle boat
was only a hundred feet long but unlike most boats it could keep up with the other ships accelerating at hundreds of Gee's flying between the stars. For a short while anyway. Half the small ship was still mass tanks. The shuttle accelerated down the short catapult and out the side away from the 2,000 foot long transport. Jack pulled the nose around and headed for the Red Dwarf fallowing a course set by the Ensign. The ship now far in the distance, only a little pip in the sensor screens. Once the new upgraded engine had started working the Captain had left it at low power but the ship still ran away from the Red Dwarf. It was now the fastest ship in the fleet even with only one engine and going strong. The Shuttle was having to slow down to let the Red Dwarf catch up to them by accelerating back along the course to help the Red Dwarf catch up faster.

The Captain started
telling Jack stories and asking questions. A constant stream of lessons about piloting and Captaining a Navy Combat Starship. Several times he had the Ensign plot evasive maneuvers and Jack pilot the ship avoiding the virtual enemy ships as well as making attack runs.

Four hours after launch
ing, the shuttle reversed course, came to a relative stop beside the Red Dwarf, slid into its shuttle bay coming to a rapid stop in the trap and smoothly docked. The only time the Captain did not talk was approaching the trap. As Jack docked, shut down and locked the engines the Captain continued where she had left off.

Jack
finally sat back to relax for a few seconds and closed his eyes wishing the Captain would just shut up for a second so he could catch up.

"Well Mr. Turner now that you have
earned your pilots license, I suppose I should give you the rank that goes with it." Jack turned around looking at the Captain with his mouth open. The Captain handed Jack a little box. "Here are my original Lieutenant bars Turner. They belonged to my father. Don't disgrace them. I have given them to only 6 officers over the years, each one of them have gone on to great things. You can start with the Junior Grade bar and hang on to the others until you need them then return them." Turning to the Ensign. "You did a nice job navigating and copiloting. Finish your qualifications in the simulator and I am sure you will get yours." The Captain got up and headed off the bridge and stopped at the hatch. "Ensign; battlefield commissions are only temporary. Make sure Turner finishes at least one of his bachelor degrees as soon as possible. I want them on my desk by the end of the month."

Jack and the Ensign followed the Captain out of the shuttle. As the Captain started down the ramp Dr. Johnson intercepted them.

"What is going on here Captain? They will not let us back into the Red Dwarf."

"
Because Doctor, you are being transferred to the USS Parsley. It is waiting for us in Ship Docking Bay 5 now down on the other end of the ship. The stern. The cargo elevator at the core of the bay will take your whole entourage along with the rest of Jacks research teams down in one group. The Parsley will launch as soon as we are aboard. The rest of your scientists and civilians scattered across the fleet are already there."

"You can't do that. My crews are tasked with examining the enemy and reporting on possible
advancements."

"That is what my orders said." Captain Halsey smiled. "To bad all your people insist on sending everything to you without giving my commanders or me even the basic facts to help us in our coming battle. A
God-damn First Class Gravity tech had to tell me the enemy had a Black hole massless drive. Then I find out yesterday from what Mr. Turner down loaded from your files that you knew weeks ago from the data our scouts were sending back, while you were trying to figure out how to make an engine that you could profit from. And failing miserably" The Captain smiled at the Director. "I am authorizing the company contract personnel sent along by most of the big corporations access to all information we receive on the enemy from now on. They have been extremely forthcoming and helpful since I gave them clearance unlike your people." The Captains face and voice changed getting rough. "Now get your treasonous Assess down onto the Parsley before I decide to space the lot of you before we launch." 

"Launch? Going where?"

"Why, back towards Earth of course Doctor. Does that meet your approval?"

The Doctor did not bother to
answer as he ran off telling his colleague that they were headed the hell out of the war zone. To Jacks surprise several groups of engineers and scientists came up asking the Captain to leave them behind so they could do their jobs gathering needed information on the enemy technology. Promising to report everything they found now that the Director was leaving.

The Captain smiled. "Don't worry Gentlemen we would be back in plenty of time to get all the info you want on the enemy
if you decide to actually start helping the Navy. Write now you have much more important jobs to do. Making sure the fleet is able to defeat that enemy for you to study. Now get aboard, we will be leaving shortly."

The Admiral
's cart came running up to the foot of the ramp. "Captain! What the hell are you doing? You said you would re-engine my battle ships and here you have so far only reequipped your transports with the new engines."

"No
Admiral. I have equipped one Battleship to be exact.  I am taking  34 of the 66 auxiliary transports and tankers from the FMC's back to the supply rock to pick up new coils to do just that as well as new torpedoes and the 24 inch laser guns and something the enemy has that we don't. Shields for our ships. I am leaving you plenty of tankers and supply transports from the Dwarfs, for any emergencies. You are going to have to delay your battle a little while longer. We will be back in three or four weeks with another week to reequip the fleet and you can have your battle with some chance of winning."

"What
? I will not stand for that Captain. You will re-engine my battle ships now damn it. And that is an order Captain. My family could be close to being murdered now."

T
he Captain looked around the landing bay that was empty of everyone but a few crewmen. "No admiral. We do not have enough coils to equip all your battleships. That is the original reason we are going back to The Rock. With these new engines I can make it back to the rock in a couple of weeks instead of two months. And since I talked to you last, the engineers and scientist in the fleet have come up with a few improvements in the weapons and you are going to take advantage of them weather you want to or not. Giving you plenty of time to remass your entire fleet from the Red Dwarf before it leaves to start evacuating the nearest star system while you are waiting. Until I return, you will stay far enough back from that wall of enemy battleships to stay safely out of contact. That is the orders I received from the Admiralty a couple of hours ago as have you and that is Vice Admiral in command of the transport fleet, Admiral. With the authority to leave your butt high and dry so don't push me or I will pull them all." The Captain turned and walked down the ramp. "Lieutenant JG Turner; get your butt down to the bridge of the Parsley and prepare to launch with half the Condiment fleet. You Ensign have some errands to run.”

The
4 transports from the Black Dwarf launched together a half hour later. Even though the crews of the auxiliary transports had been able to test the engine up grades at idle while still in dock, Jack was still surprised to have all 4 of the transport's engines power up to full thrust with no problems after taking up a direct course for the Rock. Which was a surprise to Jack. The normal shipping lanes normally wound around zig zagging from inhabited star system to inhabited system to refuel between legs making their slow way across the Republic. For the first time, with the new engines, that was not needed. The biggest problem with the acceleration the new engines allowed was that the grav coils in the in the decks had to work above there rated capacities as the engines kicked the 2,000 foot long ships in the ass hitting a thousand Gee's easily even though Jack had the throttle at 75% power. But then the transports were empty. Doing a little dance in his chair as the Red Dwarf and her 11 sister ships fell rapidly behind. Until he noticed 4 of the transports in the fleet lagging behind and surmising that they had engine problems which was confirmed a few minutes later.  The Captain (Vice Admiral) telling them to group together as a squadron, placing a captain in command to follow as they worked out there bugs.

Jack watched the fleet settle into a loose formation around the Parsley. Something he had never seen before
in real life with the Turner Joy and tramp ships. Though he had done it many times in The Game. The hours that fallowed started to reinforce his feelings of being in The Game again and not on a real ship.  Nervous at first, he was glad he did not have to match course and speed with anyone though he knew what was expected of him as lead ship and The Game he had been playing for a decade continued to take over more and more as he kept telling himself that it was not The Game. The biggest problem Jack was having was the fact that, The Game, did not let you cruise very long without something happening.  He had to get used to the fact that he did not have to worry about pirates or enemy ships ambushing them or a disastrous accident aboard ship or simply equipment break downs or something else that demanded action even if it was nothing more than to tour the ship to stem crew problems, The Game used to keep The Game interesting and the player hooked. The Game simply did not allow for much free time to get bored and think. The fact that he was only a pilot and not Captain and it was not his responsibility no matter what happened made him greatly relieved. Though it had been years since he had been just a pilot.

But still t
he feeling of being in The Game was getting to eerie to ignore. Keeping him from relaxing as he waited for something to happen. He fell fast into The Game as lead ship, he had to keep a good eye out for space crap giving the ensign plenty of time to plot and maneuver the whole fleet away from it. And at the speed they were going the sensors where barely able to give him time to maneuver the ship let alone the fleet. He was very glad when the Captain ordered the Ensign to plot a course to the rear of the fleet ordering the next ship in line to take the lead for a while. But then Jack had to worry about keeping in formation with the ships close around him and he wished he was back at the lead until he got the hang of it and he could relax. Then The Game kicked into his head again as he fought trying to differentiate the reality of boredom on the long watch and waiting for The Game to do something bad that would require action. Fast immediate action. The end of his watch came none too soon with nothing happening of note the whole time. If he was not so worked up adrenaline wise with the reality of it all, he would have thought about complaining about how boring it had been.

"Mr. Turner now that you are done playing transport pilot, will you do me the honor of accompanying me to the officers mess for
a late lunch." The Captain stood, turned and without looking to make sure Jack was following, headed for the hatch. The Ensign not sure what to do, stood looking around the bridge waiting for the rest of the relieved bridge crew to leave before heading out herself until the Captain said as Jack and her reached the hatch. "You too Ensign."

The Captain continued to talk about
piloting and commanding starships during the lunch until she finally wiped her mouth and hands then smiled at Jack. "Ok now that you are fed and relaxed. I want you to design and upgrade the FMC's propulsion engines. The difference over the other upgrades is that you have no grave coils big enough to use on those monster 2,000 foot long engines. But that just means you have the opportunity to design new coils from the ground up to make the engines the best they can be. Only thing is you only have a few hours to do that before we are out of laser comm range with the Red Dwarf so they can transmit the specks to earth and the Robo-factories that can produce them by the time we get there."

"What the
frack Sir."  Jack's mouth dropped open as he stared at the Captain. "The last fracking; I am sorry sir, Frigging thing I needed to be doing was playing pilot sir." Shaking his head. "I can't design a whole new god star damn class of coils in only a couple of fracking hours. Why the hell didn't you tell me hours ago, giving me time to get everything that needed to be done, done."

"Thank God as Captain I don't have to explain shit to you Lieutenant JG Turner." Smiling at Jack as she dropped her
napkin to her plate. "You will find the design terminals and the engineers and scientists down in the lower hold deck, deck 72, you have hold G. Pull any of the others off their projects in the other holds you need to get the coils designed in time Mr. Turner. Oh and your cabin is just below your hold in the engineering officers country. I had your things unpacked for you while you were on watch. And by the way. They have just finished setting the terminals back up after transferring them from the Red Dwarf.” The Captain watched Jacks eyes glaze over looking at nothing as she turned her seat and stood up to leave the table. “You are dismissed Mr. Turner." Standing up she spotted the Ensign’s side arm with satisfaction and started to walk away then stopped when Jack did not move. "Lieutenant JG?"

"Captain
Sir." The Ensign spoke up. "He is working now sir. Organizing his thoughts. I will make sure he gets down to the lab sir when he is ready. For now I think I shall have some desert now that I am not trying to starve these off." She hefted her breasts up with her hands and stood up. "It was not working anyway. It was just making them look even bigger as my waist shrank and they got firmer."