Turning to Pan as the elevator stopped and the hatch opened. “Pan, I want you to spend at least a week going over the records you were talking about and talking to the other Dumonts from the other ships about what you can and cannot do or accomplish. I want a plan or several plans and contingencies before you even talk to one of them.”
Pan looked at Jack as her mind raced. Jack could see the energy swirling across her mind without her having to talk to herself to know she was upset even if he could not understand what she was thinking. She finally opened her mouth. “I see your military mind demanding order with your fear at loosing me. Hoping that I will see with study and advice from others that it is a futile attempt to even try to save them. But I must try Captain even if it costs me my life. I will comply with all your wishes and help you acquaint yourself with several Dumonts that can replace me if I die.”
“If they had killed me Pan, they would have enslaved you with the power they were developing as a group. Fact is, I find it disturbing that you people are able to group your minds together increasing your power so much.”
“That surprised me as well Captain. I have never heard of that being even possible and as kids, most have tried it without success. But you are right now that I think about the power and multiple impressions I felt until just before the collar exploded. I believe that we should check the DNA of these Dumonts. It may turn out that they are genetically identical clones making their brain wave frequencies close enough for amplification instead of simply reception.” Pan started scribbling on her pad. “I will have the medical bots do the sampling and testing. This may turn out to be more complicated than I thought.” Pan stopped scribbling and turned to stare at Jack for several seconds as her mind raced again. Then she spoke in her mind. ‘How do you know about the massive power of the attack and the amplification and the other Dumonts helping Captain? I have never heard of a mind not a Dumont being telepathic let alone being awakened to reception and transmission. Do you understand me Captain? Can you hear my mind spoken thoughts?’
Jack just stood there keeping his mind blank and his face frozen. Then said out loud. “Is there a problem Pan?”
Pan shook her head and spoke out loud. “No Captain, I was just thinking.” Then to herself shaking her head and frowning. ‘That was a stupid idea. We can’t read other species thoughts or mind spoken words so how could he. Only reading general feelings and impressions while injecting our feelings to calm and influence crowds a bit which is why the Gods value us. Though some of our scholars believe our ability to access other species feelings is why we can learn and translate new languages so well.’ Pan went down a list of things they could and could not do until she stopped cold and suddenly froze. She looked back at Jack surprised. ‘What the Gods! Why am I suddenly reciting basic facts about our abilities?’
Jack suddenly realized that his passion and feelings of curiosity about the Dumont’s abilities had influenced her thinking. Freezing his mind he tried not to say shit to himself as he turned to follow the Ensign and lieutenant out of the elevator leaving a stunned baffled Pan behind. Any trace of her feelings and mind gone as soon as he turned away leaving only an impression of where her mind energy was behind him in his mind’s eye.
Chapter 4; Catching a Currier
Jack realized that he was exhausted as he walked from the elevator and then he saw the rows of Spider fighters lined up as fare as he could see across the deck in this ship wide compartment with the overhead a good hundred feet above. He had never been in a compartment this big before coming to this ship. Even though he had been through the compartment once before looking for straggling berserkers and God Officers. Jack had been way too busy with his combat suit’s visor completely dark to make it easy to see the heat the berserker Apes gave off and the power the Godofficers in their pressure cans needed to really notice let alone look. Now without his Combat suit’s helmet on let alone the visor down, Jack was amazed by its size and the contents as if he had never been there before. Hundreds of Red Apes and other aliens were lined up with a smattering of humans from the crews and marines that had been a part of the attack. Another line of Apes with strange black suits that were slimmer than the battle suits the Red Apes were wearing were lined up on the other side of the elevator hatch from the core that ran up and down the full length of the ship again now with all the repairs being so rapidly performed. Jack was suddenly not tired at all.
Looking around he suddenly realized that when he looked at any of the nearby Apes within hearing distance, their guttural Godspeak made complete sense instead of just every other or 5 words depending on what they were talking about. Now every word was perfectly understood. And then he realized the reason he was having such a hard time understanding them before was the fact that quite a few of the words they were using were not Godspeak but their own ancient language mixed in when talking amongst themselves.
Pan came walking out of the elevator still half puzzled. She finally pulled herself together and turned to Jack. “These black suited Apes, or better yet Gronks is their species name. Are all that are left of the ships fighter pilots because they had been demoted to slaves for making mistakes and were not included in the berserking. Yeti had kept them in the slave hibernation chambers since the Combat Apes did not like battling against them for practice because they were too easy to kill.” Turning to the line of Red Apes as she consulted her pad. “Those Red Apes are the pilots demoted to slaves from the other ships you destroyed and the Hulkbase. They like most pilot Apes on my and other ships, received training in both combat as well as making repairs on the ship once they became slaves. They need no training. The rest of the aliens in flight training suits are the boat maintenance pilots and have never been in a fighter before. They will take some training as they will know the basics of flying fighters from flying boats but have no clue about combat operations or weapons. The rest of the aliens are the Dwarfs, Comedians and Sumachs making up the maintenance and handling crews for the fighters. How do you want to proceed Captain?”
Jack turned to Pan. “How do you train your pilots? Do you use simulators or simply throw them into cockpits?”
“The simulators are on the next deck down. Pilots train in the simulators every day they are out of the hibernation pods and only take out the fighters for actual combat against an enemy.”
“Ok.” Jack looked around the parked fighters. “Explains why the fighters I can see up close all look brand new. Do you use classrooms for general theory and who teaches basics?”
“The recruits are expected to know basic space dynamics and tactics from training before they are assigned to the flight deck for simulator training.”
“Ok and who runs the simulators?”
“We have technicians that check each pilot into a simulator and watch over it but the training programs are already in the control computer.”
“Good, I want the humans in the sims first and training as soon as possible with a black Ape that knows English at each human’s side to help explain the equipment and procedures and speed training. I need them flying by morning. Do you have enough sims for that?”
“There are a thousand simulators Captain so the whole cohort can train together.”
“Good, that means the boat pilots can train as well with an Ape or a Gronk to help smooth things over with them as well. Oh and no executions for mistakes. This is training and mistakes are expected. I also want a couple hundred fighters prepared for launch.”
“Very well Captain.” Pan started tapping on her pad.
Jack turned to the Lieutenant and Ensign. “Ok guys and gals go get our pilots and get them down into the simulators and be quick about it.”
The Deck turned into bedlam as most everyone headed somewhere while the Red Apes remained at attention in line. The Dwarfs, Comedians and Sumachs spreading out amongst the fighters in the front rows stripping protective covers and checking the equipment. Jack could understand the ones talking that he could hear as long as he was looking at
them with his head no matter what language they were talking. Most sounded excited that they were actually going to launch the fighters.
Jack waited for Pan to finish what she was doing on the pad as he marveled at his new understanding of so many languages. When she finally looked up he smiled at her. “Now I want the Red Ape pilots to be assigned to a fighter and start patrolling the area around the hulk. Make sure they know not to shoot at any Republic boats or ships as they come and go. And I suppose I need to get some kind of command center manned and operating.”
Pan looked at Jack with big eyes. “You want to actually launch fighters when there is no planet or enemy around?”
Jack chuckled. “When you don’t have 10,000 ships and are afraid of nothing, you run patrols so you can find the enemy and not get surprised by them. Besides the best way to find out what the pilots know and how good they are is to put them into a cockpit and launch their assess out the chute.” Jack smiled and started walking toward the nearest fighter. He had flown the enemy Assault boats already and figured he could get a good idea of the fighters’ capabilities simply by looking in the Cockpit even if he didn’t have any idea about how to use their weapons. Besides he was just plain curious.
As Jack walked toward the fighter he noticed the Red apes disappearing into side compartments instead of climbing into the fighters. Turning to Pan that was just catching up to him. “I wanted the Red Apes to get into the fighters and take them out into space on patrols. Not use the training simulators.”
“I am sorry Captain, the Red Apes need to change into flight suits. It will only take a few minutes. There are lockers inside normally used for flight suits but they can store their armored combat suits in while they are fitted with new flight suits in the suiting pods. Actual combat is so seldom done that new suits are issued for battles with the suits recycled after each battle and only rarely stored in the lockers if a planet turns out to be stubborn. Which is why there are 200 suit forming pods in the combat locker rooms. The training locker room below uses light weight none armored suits with the same bulk as the combat suits but are lighter, cheaper to maintain and worn by training pilots. Those were the suits the pilots below are wearing now.”
“Thanks Pan.” Jack continued walking toward the nearest fighter. He started to reach up to lower his helmet’s visor so he could read the small printed tags and warnings stenciled across the fuselage of the fighter only to realize he could read them already. He started looking for any indication for a deployable ladder wondering if they used portable role up ladders though he could not see any sitting around even for maintenance. A sumach some 8+ feet tall (Jack not realizing how tall and skinny they were or how long their arms were until one passed close beside him) ran up to the fighter (actually walked but the speed he was traveling with his long legs made it look like he was running in Jacks eyes at first glance) and slapping the side of the fuselage. A ladder extended down from below the cockpit. Then stood back to allow Jack to climb up it. Several dwarfs appeared with large boots on that lifted them up with soft hums to crawl around the fighter opening hatches and checking equipment. The sumach started taking off covers including long plastic flexible covers from over the long cannons sticking out from the wing roots.
Jack had never seen such large cannons on fighters before but realized that these were designed for attacking planets supporting the troops though they looked like they could give a good accounting of themselves against the Republic fighters that he was somewhat familiar with even though he had never actually flown one outside a simulator. Then a set of large covers were taken off of the front of the engines and Jack suddenly wondered what the hell they were for and just as suddenly knew the engines used air as reaction mass when inside a planet’s atmosphere. Something he had never heard of before and that the Republic fighters could not do. Wondering if that limited the fighters range in open space if it carried less fuel or the engines were not as efficient using regular reaction mass. Jack’s mind started dredging up more facts about the fighter he did not know he knew answering the range on reaction mass question. Not only did the fighters seem to have more efficient engines but they could use any mass the engine scoops could pull in. Most likely including cloud mass from the nebula not only to run the engines but to refill the tanks for later use.
Jack started to realize that the Dumonts that had tried to kill him had down loaded one hell of a lot of information try to over load his brain. Still not understanding at first how that would have worked until his mind dredged up the facts that all they were trying to do was over load his brain to make him go catatonic which would have allowed them to access his primeval mind that would have actually have been what they needed to access and stop his heart. Instead, somehow he had learned to catalog and stuff the information away into storage without actually looking or concentrating on it. No not somehow. Pan had provided or shown him the needed patterns to teach him how to catalog the massive amounts of information since the power they were feeding the images and impressions to him did not allow him to simply ignore any of it. But they had to ignore Pan to do it leaving her free to help him deal with it all. Though it did not sound like she was aware of exactly what she was doing at the time which was interesting.
Jack shook his head suddenly appreciating how much Pan had done for him.
“Captain, do you wish to climb into the Cockpit?” The sumach asked from a few feet away as Pan slid up.
“Aaa yes thank you.” Jack smiled as he realized that he could read the name tag on the jump suit the sumach was wearing instead of just being a bunch of symbols. “Sumacom. Do you think you could explain the controls and weapons systems on the fighter for me? I have flown the aaa, God boats before but they may differ from the fighter.”
“Yes Captain Turner, I can explain the instruments and control functions but I know nothing about piloting or how to use the weapons except to activate them.”
“That will be fine Sumacom. That is all I ask.”
Jack climbed up and peered into the cockpit and realized that he not only had to get out of Sumacom’s way for him to explain things to him but that he could fit into the cockpit with his combat armored suit still on and his weapons attached with room to spare since the cockpit was designed for Apes or to be more exacts Gronks. He was going to have to start using proper names instead of the slang tags they had put on so many of the aliens. Sumacom appeared on the other side of the cockpit as Jack started to climb in, helping him by adjusting the various parts of the seat to fit. The seat was easily made to fit Jack snuggly placing him within easy reach of all the controls and instruments that looked all too familiar after flying the Spider Assault boats.
Pan was suddenly hovering on the opposite side of the cockpit Jack had climbed up on as Sumacom plugged a couple of lines into Jack’s combat suit. That surprised Jack until he remembered that the suit was of recent spider manufacture to fit humans but with all the fittings for using the Spider Assault boats and the Spider battleship hulks and Station. The Red Pepper had still been too hot when it had come time to recharge the Republic suits so Pan had arranged for the entire human crew to be resuited with Spider technology suits. Human technology had been added where it was more advanced or needed that turned the suit into a hybrid that was more advanced with better protection than the original human combat suits and in some respects better than the Ape or Gronk suits since even more advanced technology including the crystal armor had been added that had not been allowed on the Ape or Gronk suits. Technology that the Gods did not even know about since slaves were not supposed to think let alone do research. Now because of the humans being half the size of the Apes or Gronks. Jack fit perfectly into the cockpit even with his armored combat suit.
Sumacom started explaining the cockpit to Jack but within a minute his mind started filling in the gaps and jumping ahead as Sumacom ran down the controls and instrument displays. Jack’s mind going way beyond the short brief description the tech was supplying as he talked. The anemic desc
ription of each control, screen and especially each weapon system bringing up books of information flashing to mind forcing Jack to rush through each flash to keep up with Sumacom’s lecture each time he moved on to the next. Jack finally had to hold up his hand as Sumacom started to go on after simply naming one weapon when Jack simply could not go through the whole massive book on that system in such a short time and not wanting to stop fearing they would not get back to the lecture or miss something when he did. Saying to himself in his head. ‘God man. Just give me a minute will you?’ As his mind was flooded.
Pan smiled when the sumach became baffled with Jack holding his hand up in his face. “The Captain is thinking about the weapons you just told him about. Going over possible uses and when to deploy it. You may continue when he lowers his hand.” Then to Jack in a whisper only for him. “I think I heard your mind speak Captain. That should not be possible.”
Realizing that he had not said a word out loud Jack continued to stare ahead for a good minute then turned to Pan with a frown. “You ever heard of ventriloquists Pan?”
“Yes Captain. The making of speech without moving ones lips.” Pan said out loud as she smiled. “This was different and you know it.” She said in her mind. ‘You can hear and understand me now can’t you Captain?’
‘And if I say no would you know it was a lie?’ Jack had meant to speak verbally but realized that he hadn’t.
“Yes I would have known it was a lie.” Pans eyes grew big as she answered verbally without thinking and then with her mind. ‘I can understand you. How is that possible?’
‘You are the expert here Pan. I seem to know all kinds of things I shouldn’t. Though I don’t know I know things until someone tells me or I dig for them. Ever since Yeti’s children’s mass attack in the lower deck boat hanger.”
Battleship Destroyer 2 (Battleship Destoryer) Page 14