Battleship Destroyer (96 page)

"What oh.
  Well.  Fire what you have at the passing fleet... Use…" Jack punched up a list and started going down it. "Bravo 5. If profiles are the same as The Game…. Yes. Bravo 5.2 should do it with the torpedoes we have already launched. Send them out to join the rest to intercept the fleet as it passes before they go dormant.  That should slow them down a little. Oh, and I need 3, no 6 from the last launch to suicide the Admiral's barge if anything gets near it." Turning to the Admiral. Is that satisfactory for you Admiral?"

"Firing torpedoes
in 3, 2, Shoot." Came the weapons officers voice with another 12 streaks leaving the ship

Jack looked out at the approaching boats.
The big transport boats were not in sight. Hidden behind a cloud of debris. The small boats approaching the ship had slowed down to a crawl. "Damn it Pan. They are moving to slow. I don't care about damaging the tanks or the boats just get them in now."

Jack found himself going between watching the timer
to the next wave of torpedoes and the boats approaching the tank hatches. He watched the closest boat fire their retro thrusters to slow themselves down as they fine-tuned their line up before entering the hatch.

Then 2 seconds too soon
some three dozen beams flashed down around hulks Charley, Delta and Alpha, not even getting near the Red Pepper and hulk Echo. Jack just sat there with his mouth open as hulks Charley and Delta took a beating. The hulks seemed to break apart in the middle. Huge pieces of each drifting away from each other.

"Sixty Three second
s to next gun attack." Said tactical. "The torpedoes are now using all their power to speed up instead of zig zagging defense maneuvers."

"All
the small boats are safely aboard Captain Turner." Pan turned to Jack. "That is except the two big transport boats."

Jack hit the comm
to the Boat Chief in the lock control room. "Chief, I need you to light off the barges engines and put it on remote pilot. Make sure no one is left aboard it. We will hide it in all the wreckage. I need that barge in 12 minutes how are you doing?"

Jack turned to the Admiral.
"Admiral please send your codes to the Chief."

"This had better be worth it Turner. It is going to be hell for me to change all my codes. I can't just change the ones I send you."

"I hope so too Admiral. Tactical are you tracking the large boats? I don't see them in the tank."

The boat appeared in the tank. "Sorry
sir. I was concentrating on the incoming torpedoes."

Glancing at the tank. "Navigator, that
new trench is snaking around under us, plot a course for us to enter the trench as we pass over it."

"Yes sir. Time of our departure sir?"

"If we are not out of here in 13 minutes we won't be leaving." Looking up Jack raised his hand to sight down his out stretched thumb then raised the other to sight down it at something else a foot away. Then turned back to tapping the plot screen. "Plot us leaving in 12 minutes and 23 seconds on this heading. The hulks must stay between us and the enemy fleet. Now that they are so close. The remnants of the mass cloud and expanding wreckage will keep us hidden from the approaching fleet long enough for us to make the trench in the cloud where we can use full military thrust of the new engines at the bottom."

"What
, I ordered you not to use full thrust Turner." The Deluge of torpedoes continued to break up hulks Charley, Delta and knocking armored decks off of Alpha into a dozen sections as explosions tore them apart showering parts in all directions.

"Hopefully Admiral, they
won’t be able to see us at the bottom of the trench with the walls between us and them."

"Launching another
spread of torpedoes Captain. First spread of torpedoes reaching deployment area now. Estimated time to lead enemy squadron entering enemy gun target range is 10 minutes 52 seconds."

"Chief, where is my barge. I need it launche
d in five minutes."

"Captain we are having problems with the remote piloting system.
We don’t have time to replace it."

"Do you have the Admiral's comm gear activated?"

"Yes Captain all the come equipment is functioning 5 by 5 with the Admiral's codes accepted. It has established open connections to relays in the cloud and back toward Earth. But the auto pilot remote control is not operational and we have no spare modules handy."

Jack closed his eyes for a second then took a deep breath.
"Chief, put some one that can fly it, in it and launch it. No one above the rank of Ensign. No… Put a maintenance rating in it… No!  Damn it. Just kick it out the hatch and pray that the damn thing just drifting fools them anyway. That is if it survives long enough."

Jack sat back knowing that it was a waste of time just kicking the barge out without a crew. But he just could not force himself to sacrifice anyone.
“Add some hot decoys and a couple of body’s from the morgue.”

"Bullshit Captain Turner." The Admiral said from his screen. "You know that is not going to work. Remote piloting would not have worked
either. Without a worm body with all the signs of life, l they would have smelled a trap a hundred miles away even if it was moving around hiding using a remote. For this to work it requires at least a pilot if not a skeleton crew. I was hoping you would come to realize that before I had to intervene. Now I am taking it out of your hands. I am ordering you to put a junior crew on board the barge with extra weapons that can operate it and protect it so the enemy has to actually enter the debris field to pry it out."

"But Admiral." Jack protested.

"Chief, you have your orders. Carry them out." The Admiral said.

"But Damn it
. No Admiral. I will figure something else out."

"Turner, being in command soon teaches you that second thoughts usuall
y get people killed and even lose battles. You know this is the only way but you are not mature enough to accept it. That is part of commanding a ship. Now I have taken the responsibility so launch the damn boat."

"Boat launched Captain." Came the Boat Chiefs voice
seeming to boom across the bridge. He had none all along it needed a crew.

Jack turned and watch
ed it work its way through the wreckage away from the ship. To shocked to even say anything. Finally he tapped the comm. As the young eager face appeared on the screen Jack looked down trying not to look at him. "Shuttle 3992, take station behind hulk Echo until the barrage stops. Do not approach the hulk. It is still crewed and possess your biggest threat. When we leave you will have 5 minutes until the next strike.  Move over amongst the larger pieces of wreckage in one of the other hulks and hide the best you can. The longer you stay hidden the more ships you will attract looking for you."

Pan walked over to Jack. "I have told the fusion core crew about you
r bait and placed a volunteer with a comm unit on the shuttle. He will help advise your crew how to stay hidden and communicate with the core when to run the fusion cores up to full power and detonate."

Jack suddenly took an interest in the young face in front of him
as dread washed over him.

"I want to thank you for giving me this opportunity for my first command Captain. I will not let you down."  The overly eager boy that lo
oked wet behind the ears as Jack tried not to throw up.

Then he noticed the
alien standing behind the young Ensign. "Ensign I need you to pull your weapon and restrain the Alien immediately." The Ensign pulled his weapon from his hip and slowly pointed it at the alien. Baffled. "Be as polite as you can but have your crew strip and tie it to one of the jump seats as fare from the main controls as possible. Make sure it cannot move or get away or reach anything." As the Ensign complied, Jack turned to the Weapons officer. "Have the close in defense weapons lock onto the shuttle and prepare to activate the suicide torpedoes."

Everyone around the bridge stared back at Jack unless they
were carrying out his orders or had something better to do.

Th
e shuttle was hugging hulk Echo when the Baffled Ensign rejoined the com, Jack grimaced. "Sorry Mr. Stewart and you Pan and your brethren. I have read a bunch of battle reports since I became an officer. One of the details that stand out is that the only ships that they have tried to capture instead of just destroying them outright, are the command ships and command stations. The fact that they have the best comm units and the master codes may be the reason why we have received more reports from them than the other ships they have destroyed and yes they may have even tried to capture other combat ships that did not fall into their hands, but I really don't think so. What they have been after I think, are our comm equipment and master flag codes. Luckily all the command ships and stations have fusion bomb self-destructs in them with the comms reporting that they were activated before losing contact with them. The Admiral even made a point of telling me that he takes one where ever he goes just for that reason."

Looking around the bridge suddenly unsure of himself. "
In order for us to get out of here we need the enemy to have its eyes and attention on something else and remembering we had the Admiral's barge works out perfect. I am sorry Ensign that a wonderfully brave and bright officer like you has to be part of the bait.  I hope you can forgive me when we meet again which may be sooner than I hope." Looking from the Ensign to Pan. "I am also sorry Pan that I cannot take the chance that you may have a traitor in your midst that would not think twice or even after thinking long and hard about death, change his mind, kill the crew and turn over the shuttle and comm unit and codes to your Gods, the Spiders. I hope you can understand."

"Captain, this is engineering. The aliens have hooked up a generator. Do you want me
to add its power to weapons as well or restore life support?"

"
Send the power to life support for now but make sure it can power the weapons if needed Chief.”

"Captain, next attack in 10
seconds. The torpedoes are coming straight in sir."

"Ensign Stewart, every ship you can sucker in
to a range of 10 miles of hulk Echo when it detonates will save millions of lives. Though once we are away and safe, I wish I could think of some way for you to leave as well but I can't without a good chance you will be caught and taken alive or even killed with the equipment still intact. That cannot happen under any remote circumstances. Is that clear?"

The young man jumped to attention. "Yes Captain, I will not let the Comm equipment fall into enemy hands under any circumstances sir."

"Very well. Good luck Lieutenant Stewart." Jack saluted.

Some 20
torpedoes streaked into the hulks a few seconds later. One of them hit the hulk the Red Pepper was hiding behind as Hulk Charley took the brunt of the attack. Jack was turning around to talk to Pan when the bridge lit up with the light of a sun. Jerking around, he shielded his eyes with his hands as the expanding fireball quickly started fading.

"They
must have hit the fusion core on hulk Charley Captain." The Ensign said from her science sensor station.

"What about the Admiral's barge? Did it get
caught in the fireball?" Jack glanced at the static covered screen that had been the Admiral's barge. It flickered and then the ensign appeared on it again a little shaken up. "Ensign how badly is your shuttle damaged."

The Ensign climbed back into his seat and looked at Jack. "Only minor damage from what I can see Captain Turner but it was close. I think I will stay a little farther away from hul
k Echo just in case it goes up as well sir. I take it that all the hulks have self-destruct cores set up."

"Very well Ensign."

"Captain, we are ready to launch the last shuttle needed to clear space. The locks will be cleaned out in another 5 minutes."

Jack watched the two transport boats approaching the ship. "Very well Chief." Turning to Pan.  "I want those boats
aboard as soon as the locks are empty."

A h
undred beams rained down around the hulks and the Red Pepper. Several came close to the ship with one barely missing one of the boats as the hulk they were hiding behind took one in the stern.

"The lead squadron
is in long range beam weapons range Captain." Tactical said as another spread of 12 torpedoes left their tubes with a distant thump.

Jack looked down at the dwindling numbers of torpedoes from the almost empty
ready magazine. "Weapons I need you to save a spread of torpedoes for when we leave."  Turning to the cargo officer. "Cargo, finish unzipping the rest of the cargo mass tanks. Every one of them." Jack hit the screen controls bringing up the locks being emptied out for the two transports. It looked like they had a ways to go yet even if it looked like half the crew was down there amongst the towering Greenfoots humping cargo.

"Captain." Pan walked up to his ch
air. "The transports will not fit through the bay's hatch without enlarging the hatch. Even then we will have to cut a few things off the boats hull to clear the bulkheads and overhead. We have installed an air curtain field to seal the lock until we can finish enlarging the lock hatch. The lock is also to narrow at the core hull. We need to notch out the ships core hull into both bays. That will allow a transport boat to fit into each bay and leave enough room on the other end of each bay for your gigs to operate from."