Battleship Destroyer (56 page)

"Affirm
ative Ensign. Lieutenant Hendrix has already reported your incident and has merged your team with his. Give us a call when you are ready for duty again."

She
had been fighting the Lieutenant for control of the job and her team since he had arrived and started issuing stupid orders without knowing what was going on. Several times she was ready to shoot the asshole or kick him out the hole in the hull without a thruster pack. But now she did not care what he did or the job. She was going to see and make sure Jack was ok so she could kill him for getting hurt or tear down sickbay trying. She did not notice the trickle of blood from her nose or that her ears hurt as she rapidly walked down the passageway weaving from bulkhead to bulkhead not able to maintain her balance worth shit, forcing herself not to run. "Ya Central control. Will do. Make sure the Capacitors are taken to the new storage location on the Engine head deck to be hooked up to the guns. Out."

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The Captain walked into sickbay and up to Jack's bed. The Ensign sat in a chair next to Jack reading a sheet making notation's on it with a stylus. A bandage was wrapped around her head and ears "Attention on deck." The officer with the Captain said as they entered.

The Ensign jumped to attention and
promptly fell over catching herself on the chair as she went down.

"At ease Ensign
, stay seated." The Captain stopped in front of the Ensign as she sat back down clutching her tablet sheet in one hand. A trail of blood still covered her uniform where it had run down inside her suit “I hear that you terrorized half the sickbay staff earlier." Looking at her shaking her head. "Well Ensign, I guess I did order you to keep a closer eye on Mr. Turner after all. I watched the recording of the incident in the gun mount base and I am happy to award you a Silver Star commendation Ensign. "She pinned the medal on the Ensign's chest. The medallion hung down off the tip of her breast dangling at the end of the short ribbon hanging down from the bar pinned above her pocket. "Congratulations Ensign." She shook the Ensigns hand.

The Captain
turned to Jack.  "The Doctor says you will be out of here in a couple of hours and fit for light duty until tomorrow. How do you feel?"

"Except for my head hurting and feeling pretty stupid, I feel fine sir."  Jack smiled as he raised his head and then
wrenched into a frown. "That is unless I move my head. Then the world turns."

"Yes that is normal son
, they had to fix your ear drums. You evidentially tried holding your breath when your suit lost air. That alone almost killed you." She shook her head. That was what The Game could not teach you. To breath out without thinking about it when your suit got holed though Bootship should have. "But they fixed you up like new. Your body just has to catch up and the drugs wear off is all. They just about have the first capacitor installed on the turret and will be ready in a few hours to test it."

"Oh yes I have work to do." J
ack started to throw his sheet back and sit up to leave when he moaned and laid back down.

"No Jack, stay in bed. We well wait testing the gun until you are out and around.
You have put together a good crew and they are doing fine. The plasma pipe team is almost finished installed the piping for the Plasma generator to the new shields.  I understand how powerful the fusion power generator plasma is but I don't understand how you can convert that to electricity we can use, outside the fusion chamber. Let alone produce the massive amounts of power you and the Cook, ah, Hastings is talking about."

"Jack smiled weakly.
" Pushing a suddenly realized worry about not providing enough power to the guns to power the added capacitors aside. "Sorry sir but it is a bit complicated but damn simple. The hot fast plasma circulating through the pipe creates a magnetic field. A very strong magnetic field that we simply threw a few superconducting windings around to tap off the energy or to put it another way, generate the electricity we need." Closing his eyes as his head started spinning again he tried to clear his mind hopping that would help.

"So what again keeps the plasma pipe from destroying everything around it if it gets cut or the pipe punctured?"

Jack smiled opening his eyes. "Simple sir. The plasma going through the ceramic pipe is smaller than the size of a human hair, only atoms across and if the pipe is damaged and the coils holding the plasma in the center vacuum of the pipe are turned off or fail, the plasma in that section melts the surrounding pipe hitting the air witch is at a higher pressure than the plasma and cools it into a plug sealing the pipe stopping the flow of 20,000 degree plasma. It may create a small localized explosion around that section of pipe as the plasma stops flowing and cools but it is a lot less than the typical high voltage/amperage electrical short when they usually blow. It is entirely safe."

"Well son. You still seem to have your mind intact. The doctors were afraid that the swelling of your brain may have resulted in brain damage.
The Captain smiled down at Jack. “No son. I was looking over your records on The Training Game and I notice that you spent a lot of time as a Captain and Commodore, even if they were on small Destroyers mostly. Which explains why you knew how to attack the enemy ship we knocked out." The Captain combed her short hair with her hands as she slowly shook her head. "I have watched you do amazing things commanding your ships in The Game, no matter what size they were as you took on superior enemies. Figuring out what the enemy week points were as well as the strengths of the different ships you commanded and all too many times winning when I did not think you had a chance. Doing things as pilot I never even dreamed of to get your ship and fleet out of traps normal average Captains would have died in. Well lost their ships in The Game."

Jack could not believe what he was hearing from the Captain or why? But he smiled from ear to ear just the same.

The First Officer coughed. "Bullshit."

Looking at the frowning First Officer standing next to the Captain
, Jack lost his smile. "Ah but then that was just a video game Captain with no basses in reality."

The Captain looked over at her
First Officer. "Ya just a video game." And smiled. "Number One, Mr. Turner has a few hours before he is released. I want you to take advantage of that time to expand his knowledge of what is expected of a ships senior officer. What The Game does not cover." Turning to the Ensign. "Number One can take care of Mr. Turner for now. You look like shit. Go get yourself cleaned up, something to eat and a few hours' sleep. How are you doing on the pilot Sim Ensign?"

"Ah. I have not had the
time to breathe for a week now, let alone spend time in a Sim sir." The Ensign frowned wanting to add the fact that she was told not to leave Jacks side again.

"Well. You have time now
after you get cleaned up and some sleep. That is an order."

"But sir I have way too
much to do right now to waste time in a Sim. Especially with us approaching the Rock and all the pilots you will have available."

"I said that is an order Ensign!
I have already informed Sim control what I want you to work on improving. I can't have an Ensign bunking with a Lieutenant. A full 60 minutes. Dismissed."

The Ensign slowly got up and
turned to Jack, her face becoming rock hard defiant. Taking and squeezing his hand as a baffled Jack looked at her and then his hand as her knuckles turned white. "I will see you later Mr. Turner." She said tight lipped and left stiff legged holding onto the bulkhead for balance.

Jack watched her leave. "What is her problem now?"

The Captain smiled as she shook her head. "You will figure it out eventually Mr. Turner."

"What? I gave up trying to figure out why she is always mad
at me when I was 10 when she disappeared on me."

"Well you have to admit she is persistent."
Taking a sheet from her first Officer she studied it. "You have 12 teams working on 10 projects that I have to agree with you on. They can go a long way to insuring us a victory if even a few of them turn out to work. Why did you pick those leaders of those teams?  Not one of them I would have picked, not to mention having two teams working on several of the same projects?"

"I didn't pick them sir. They picked themselves. I simply made sure the ones that new the most and understood the new technology best was leading. Even if it was not their Idea though I am trying to make sure the one wit
h the inspiration still has a lot of the say. Every team member of each team is leading certain sections and parts they know best. As for doubling up the teams on certain projects. I found out that smaller teams work best by getting to know each other well enough to know each other's weaknesses and strengths as well as giving each other the freedom to voice opinions and grow. If the team is too big, odd ideas that lead to breakthroughs get less and less as the size of the team grows. Then there is competition between the teams that works amazingly well. Especially when I get them both together to compare notes and the fir fly's. Pop's insistent boring talks or out of the blue statements about an old job he had in research, is coming in handy even though I tried my best to not listen."

"So how much help do you think you need to give them?"

"Me? Help them? They are the best in their fields. No I think the last thing they need is me butting in getting in their way. Not that I haven't helped but they are all good groups. All I have a tendency to do is butt in where I am not needed. According to the Ensign. Though a few questions when I think they are getting lost or headed down the wrong track seem to be amazingly effective."

The Captain turned to the ship's First Officer. "Number One
, he is all yours. Do what you can." Then left the sickbay.

The First Officer turned to Jack. "I th
ink I am wasting my time but it is Captain's orders and I damn well am not going to let the Captain down if it kills you."

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Jack walked onto the Bridge of the
Parsley followed by the First Officer. The Captain was already on the bridge sitting in a chair along the back bulkhead, far away from the central Command chair. The First Officer joined the Captain at the back bulkhead taking a seat next to her. "Are you sure Captain?" He said as he sat stone faced watching Jack approach the center of the bridge and the command chair. He got no answer.

The Ensign sitting in the pilot's chair turned to Jack as he walked up. Smiling she slid out of the chair standing back, making room for him to sit. "Am I glad you are
here. I was afraid I was going to have to pilot this thing out of this mess."

Jack stopped a few feet away from her and frowned
licking his lips as he looked down at his feet. "It's only THE GAME. It is only The Game."  He whispered to himself and then looking up at the Ensign taking a deep breath. "You did just spend the last 6 hours in the Sim doing just that amongst other tasks or did you not Ensign?"

"Ya. The Captain kept ordering
me back in the Sim after I got a little sleep instead of rejoining you. I think it amounted to about 6 hours total Jack."

"Then sit back down. You are piloting this ship from ship boarding dock. It will be a
piece of cake for you." Turning to the Command chair he saluted the Lieutenant Commander sitting there. "Reporting to relieve you Sir."

"Very well Lieutenant JG Turner. Ship is
securely moored. Engines are warmed for prestart. Thrusters are on station keeping. All stations manned and ready for departure. The con is yours, Lieutenant JG Turner." The Lieutenant returned Jacks solute not very happy and stepped from the Command Chair and took a seat next to the Captain and started whispering in her ear.

Jack sat down and looked around the bridge at everyone at their posts busy getting the ship ready for undocking. Frowning he looked down at the controls on the Chair as sweat started popping out on his face as he fought down panic. Jack just
stared at the Ensign for a few minutes and then around at the various control stations around the Bridge.

Finally
the Captain appeared alongside Jack. Her arms crossed looking down at him with a frown on her face that slowly changed to concern. "Damn it Turner." She whispered.

Jack turned and looked up at her shaking his head no. "I. I
... I can't do this Captain. I... I was just a Trampship crewman a few months ago." Jack pleaded.

"Mr. Turner. 10 years ago you started playing a game your grandfather gave you
right?"

"Well yes." Jack was taken back.  "What the hell does a game
have to do with?” Jack took a deep breath.  “So what?"

"That game was
designed to take a raw recruit fresh out of high school and teach him or her how to eventually become a vital crewman in as short a time as possible to begin with. Then compressing years of boring duty into hours of information packed and entertaining assignments to achieve specific goals to make the best ship’s techs they can be. As well as the ones that are capable, into officers and eventually command a ship." Taking a breath trying not to look impatient. "It starts by teaching them how to do jobs around the ship and then to command crewmen to do those same jobs. Real jobs that every seaman, then rating and then officer has to do. And to do those jobs successfully, you have to give the proper commands to crewmen that act and talk and respond like real crewmen have for tens of thousands of years simply because most of them are other crewmen who are starting out in the game. If you did not give the proper commands to the proper crewmen in the proper order and at the proper time and treat them like real crewmen, the jobs did not get done and you failed and if you did bad enough the game kicks you out or simply keeps you at the level you are competent at.  Crewmen in The Game are like crewmen in real life, some are reliable, some are not and some even would get mad and sabotage the work and you had to learn how to handle them all."