Pan frowned thinking for a few seconds. “Evidentially Captain, each of Yeti’s children was trained in a different maintenance specialty along with the normal Dumont Organizational, Command and general technology knowledge. They all tried overwhelming you with the knowledge they knew best and you were able to compartmentalize and hold onto it all better than I had thought possible. Though I could not give your mind specific directions I expected you to shunt it into short term memory where it would quickly fade once the attack was finished.” Pan shook her head and frowned before continuing. “Though you have not slept yet allowing your mind to finish the job of storing the data permanently. You could still loose most of it.” Pan hit the emergency release on the harness Sumacom had just finished clamping over Jack when he had adjusted the seat to fit him. “Come with me now. We have to finish seating your memories before you lose them.” When Jack hesitated she slid back up level with him again and practically shouted in her mind and verbally. ‘Now hurry!’
Jack shook his head and crawled out of the cockpit placing his feet on the ladder to climb down and was suddenly grabbed by his rescue ring and hauled off the ladder before he could get a good hold onto it. With his legs and arms dangling as they raced across the hanger, Jack realized that he was attached to Pans Grav-can by something short that kept his back hard against the can beside Pan. Her hand patted Jacks helmet. “Relax Captain, we will be in the medical bay in a few seconds.” She said allowed as Jack tried to look up and around at her giving up the fight.
They sailed through a hatch that opened into a large bay that looked like most large hospital emergency rooms with beds lining one side but with what looked like hibernation booths on arms pulled out of rows of holes in the bulkhead on the other. Pan headed for one of the hibernation pods that had several clean suited technicians or doctors rushing to it.
“No, you are not putting me in one of those things.” Jack started squirming but as they reached the pod, arms reached out and grabbed him.
“Relax Captain, we are used to handling Gronks that are badly wounded and struggling. We are not going to hurt you but this is the only way I know of to access your mind and help you retain your new memories. The Gronks are terrible at remembering important details and lessons learned from combat and training sessions. The chamber will help you as well.” Pan smiled at Jack as the padded arms held him firmly and placed him in the pod. “You look like you haven’t slept in several days anyway. This will be good for you and make you feel like you could run a marathon.” Pan suddenly frowned as doubt crossed her face and mind. “That is if all the tests we have done on humans over the last 5 years have been any good.”
Jack swallowed. “You don’t even know what food you can give us and you want to fuck with my mind?”
“Actually you just got raped and shouldn’t even be alive and as far as our food goes we thought you humans would have plenty to feed yourselves. Now relax, this won’t hurt a bit but it should help you remember every detail of your rape without the trauma including hopefully, all the data. The bad thing about hibernation, especially long term hibernation is the loss of memory, specifically mainly short term memory. While the pod can’t read minds it stimulates the sections of the brains retaining memories. A simply and very effective procedure that otherwise most of the training and experience the pilot and crews go through over their short days or weeks out of the pods would be wasted with even long term memory loss over long periods of hibernation since it is not a form of stasis but simply slowing down the body until it is all but dead.” Pan smiled again as Jack’s helmet that had popped up automatically as Jack had struggled was retracted yet again and something like a band and net was fixed around his head. “Now what is it you humans say? Oh yes. Night. Night. Captain.”
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Jack seemed to be rushing around the Spider Battleship sticking his head into everything from the dozen different types of toilets to tearing down the minutest piece of equipment in the biggest Godgun turret he had ever seen and then the smallest electronics. And then the voices started drifting in as a doctor was giving a lecture about ways to keep their new species alive after severe damage. It took him a few minutes to realize that only a fraction of the conversation was in English or spoken by a human as he recognized the voice of the Red Peppers Chief Surgeon. While most of the talk was given in Godspeak as well as several other languages in part with him still able to understand every word he heard. Though some of the side talk or comments or questions were to faint to understand. But then he would and did have the same problem in English at the few lectures he had attended at the occasional university his Grandfather (Pop) had dragged him too when the Turner Joy was in ports as well as during Bootship. The whole time his mind continued to race over sections and equipment on the Spider Battleship.
Jack’s mind finally stopped running around the Spider Battleship having exhaustedly examined every piece of equipment in every nook and cranny and then he slept.
He suddenly realized that he felt like he had slept for a week and should get up as he opened his eyes to blink as they got used to the light around him. Raising his hand toward his head a voice boomed at him.
“So you wake so soon Captain. You need to lay still for a few minutes longer.” Pan pushed his hand back down to his side.
“How long have I been asleep? Is the Destroyers mounted and this hulk underway yet? Are the fighters out patrolling and what kind of Flight Control Center do you have set up and how far are they patrolling and are they carrying the torpedoes and… No the torpedoes are much too big aren’t they. Jack now knew everything he needed to know about the Spider Torpedoes. Damn it. Aaaa.” Jack brought up what he knew about the Spider Torpedoes. “Yes. We will have to program them to act as mines tagging along a distance from the hulk has we are making the trip. But then I want mounts for Destroyers to carry some in place of the drop tanks. But then that will shorten their range.” Thinking of the fighter engines and their ability to use just about anything for reaction mass. He started getting into the smaller details of adding that capability to the engines on the Destroyers. “Yes all the Destroyers would have to do is duck into the cloud for a few minutes to refuel their tanks. Reducing the tankage and drop tank load considerably.” Frowning. “And I still have to redesign the damn Destroyer Turrets and find out why the engines keep breaking down. Speaking of which, how are they holding up moving this hulk around anyway?”
Pan smiled at Jack as the Ships Doctor went from lecturing about humans to being lectured to about Ape trauma and surgery not far away. Jack’s mind automatically jumping ahead of the lecture with what one of the Dumonts had stuffed into his head. Jack suddenly wishing he knew that much about human medical needs but none of the Dumonts had cared to learn enough about humans to equal even what Jack already knew.
“I am sorry Captain but you have only been in the pod for a half hour. The transport Destroyer bringing the engineering crews have not even arrived yet. I have the maintenance crews adding or changing all the placards and instruments to English in the fighters being assigned to the humans. It should be completed by the time the first humans are ready to fly. The first Red squadron has launched and is headed for the position of the most distant Destroyer now on patrol but without the torpedoes you wanted to send with them. We are using the existing flight control center with a few Gronk and human pilots serving as controllers.”
Jack stretched as he gathered his thoughts. “Ok Pan, we don’t need to send a whole squadron to replace a single destroyer especially if they have no teeth. All we can use them for is trip wires and then keep an eye on anything they find. Split the squadron up into 2 ship sections to replace as many of the Destroyers as you can until more fighters are out and follow suit. Then start working on using the God Torpedoes as mines placed in strategic positions around the ship for the fighters to command distant attacks on anything that shows up if they need to.” Jack started to get up. “I have too much to do to lay around h
ere.”
Pan tried to push him back but Jack sat up anyway. His suit overpowering Pan’s attempt. “No Pan don’t. I remember everything they forced into me. I am fine and feel like I have slept for 10 hours. I have to get up. To damn much to do to lay around.”
The Alien Doctor ran over. “No your muscles are totally relaxed with your heart still pumping at half speed. You will cramp and could damage your heart if you move to fast. It will take another few minutes for your body to return to normal.”
Jack felt light headed as he finished sitting up holding his head. “Damn it doctor. I don’t have time for this hibernation shit. Give me a stimulant. I need to get going.”
“No, stimulants lead to berserkers, just take time. Wait another 10 minutes then walk slow and stay sitting as much as possible for next hour after that or you will spend days back in the pod recovering from the damage. Not in hibernation. Heart not slowed but your body’s blood vessels were restricted to send most blood to brain so it could work overtime. Your body just needs time to readjust or you could stroke in brain as your heart tries to force blood to rest of body or heart attack if heart muscles cramp from lack of blood flow. Lay back down and relax until blood flow is normal.” The doctor pointed up at the pods overhead monitor screen showing his last scan before he sat up.
Jack thought for a few seconds as he looked at the monitor then turned to Pan. “I was sitting in a cockpit Pan before you dragged me in here so drag me back into a cockpit and I will spend the next couple of hours sitting as the Doctor ordered.” Jack reached for his collar and his helmet slapped up around his head as he stared at Pan.
Pan did not say anything in her mind as she stared back at Jack for a few seconds. Then she slid around behind Jack and a few seconds later as she felt her mind start to raise above him he felt a jerk between his shoulders and he was off flying again across the medical bay and out into the hanger.
They passed the fighter Jack had originally climbed up into and kept going.
“Pan. We passed the fighter. Down there Pan. Turn around Pan.” Jack turned from looking at the fighter they had just passed and tried to look back over his shoulder at pan but again he couldn’t. “Damn it Pan where are you taking me?” Jack felt even more helpless and looked where they were headed. Trying to see if there was a hatch in the inner hull they were headed for.
“I am dropping you into a cockpit Captain.”
“Ok what was wrong with the fighter back there?” Jack pointed back the way they had come from.
“This is a much better cockpit Captain.”
“Listen Pan I don’t want a simulator. I want the real thing. A real fighter’s cockpit. I want to see how one of these things fly’s for real and see what is going on around the ship. Now put me down and that is an order damn it.”
“Yes Captain, putting you down.” They started descending.
Jack looked ahead as a fighter was lifted from the packed rows lining the hull with their wings folded. The fighter was moved to a ring of platforms that were pivoting down from about half way up the outer hull to hang out above the other fighters. Other fighters were being lifted up to other platforms dropping down from the hull to form open work areas around each fighter as work crews flooded out of hatches opening in the inner hull onto the platforms. The crews looking like they were even littler than the Dwarfs working on the fighter he had been in. No, not fighter. These were bigger than the fighter Jack had been in in the front row that already had plenty of room to work around. These were twice the size of the fighters in the front row with pairs of fighter engines spaced out on the gravcoil and cooling wings away from the long main fuselage.
“What the hell… And then it came to Jack. With his mind fixated on the fighters it had taken a few second to realize what he was looking at.”
“These are our planetary bombers Captain.” Pan said. “With an engineer/weapons crewman in the cockpit that can help you if you need it. I have picked a crewman that has medical training and has worked with humans before. The bombers can carry a large tonnage of bombs internally on planetary operations or additional reaction mass in the bomb bays for added range in open space. The bomber will give you twice the range in open space as the fighters and can still carry ordinance externally. The Cannons are bigger as well providing the destruction of most small bombs for attacking ground targets and should do better against the smaller ships.”
Jack’s mind was suddenly flooded with a whole book on the fighter bomber. He was glad Pan had him as he could not even see for a good half minute as everything he could possibly ever want to know about the big bomber flashed across his mind. By the time Pan deposited him into the wide open cockpit he felt like the bomber and he were old friends. Looking up at Pan as she settled hanging in midair alongside the cockpit Jack smiled. “Wow, talking about a rush. And guess what Pan? I got a glimpse of a pair of your battleship torpedoes hanging under the wings of these things amongst all the other possible ordinance sets.” Jack concentrated on one of the bigger bombs in all the sets that made his mind feel strange and wished he hadn’t. It was a neutron bomb for killing all life in a city without damaging any of the buildings or equipment. Shaking his head he quickly turned his mind elsewhere. “The only thing I don’t remember seeing are drop tanks which is strange. Bet you could figure out how to slap some destroyer drop tanks under these as well.”
Jack started running through the preflight checklist and glanced over at Pan. “These would probably be better for the reconnaissance mission than the fighters we are launching…” Jack suddenly had a thought and looked out across the hanger and realized that all work on the fighters around the core had stopped with a lot of very busy crewmen flooding over the bombers lined up on the platforms ringing the hull. “Ok. Sorry Pan. Did not see that you had already thought of that.”
A crewman was suddenly up beside the cockpit leaning over adjusting and securing Jack into the seat. Jerking him this way and that as he made sure everything was tight as Jack continued to run the preflight check list.
Jack noticed that all the covers and safety locks had been removed from the fighter/bomber as the engine start ready lights came on. Jack hit the starter for the port number 1 engine and felt it come to life as he watched the energy build up. With number 1 running smoothly he lit off engine 2#, the starboard engine.
Smiling with relief as both engines purred, Jack started to light off the engines attached Buzzard Coils for something else to do until his mind sent up a dozen red flags. Lighting off the Buzzard Coils inside the hanger would suck everything inside the hanger not nailed down into the engine to use as reaction mass. A very handy ability when attacking planets. It reduced the amount of reaction mass the fighters and bombers had to carry. But the extra mass to feed the engines was definitely not needed in the hanger far from a planet’s atmosphere with the tanks already topped off.
“By your command Captain. As soon as you told me the reason for launching the fighters, I changed the reconnaissance squadrons from fighters to the long ranged bombers with the bays loaded with reaction mass. I am sorry to say that the first squadron launched were fighters and the changeover is why there is a delay for the next. I have split up the squadrons as you requested sending pairs of fighters to take over for the Destroyers. Though even with the engines pulling in cloud material for reaction mass they are limited in their time on station since the pilots cannot get out of their seats like the pilot’s in these much bigger fighter bombers can.”
“What?” Jack had not known or even heard of such a thing let alone an inkling that was possible so he had not noticed as everything else he was looking for had flashed across his mind. Know he knew it was possible he turned from the portside edge of the cockpit close to the canopy combing to the small narrow isle running beside his seat on the starboard side with the engineer weapons crewman sitting behind the pilot’s seat sideways facing the port side where he could see and talk to the pilot when needed. Giving a Gronk pilot (let alone Jack) plenty of roo
m to get past the console if he needed to and then the bunk, toilet and small kitchen just behind the engineer/weapons console flashed across his mind. The crew could spend days out on patrol with ease. Orbiting above the battlefield as the buzzard coils sucked in all the reaction mass they needed from the atmosphere, waiting for targets to materialize as they scanned for every scrap of metal and the ground forces pounded across the planet picking up the metals and slaves, striping the planet clean of metals at least. Ignoring most of the life forms if they were out of the way with no readings of metals that needed taking or tried to interfere. Most intelligent races had metals and tried to interfere while the less intelligent didn’t, so the Gronks ignored them as a waste of time. They got more than enough slaves and fun killing all resistance just stripping the metal.
A second crewman climbed up and started jerking Jack around checking his restraints then tapping on the maintenance screen for a few seconds and then was gone.
“Ok Pan good thinking. Though next time talk to me about it just in case I have a reason to not want to make a change. Beside I am getting tired of all the surprises. Though I have to admit that since the damn down load I have not had as many surprises.” Jack frowned. “That is if I ignore the massive surprises during the attack and since concerning my mind. The problem with the information about the ship is that sometimes I don’t know I don’t know something until you tell me I don’t know and then I know.” Shaking his head. “Damn that didn’t even make sense to me and I said it.”
Another crewman appeared next to Jack and started jerking his harness around and then checked the maintenance screen before disappearing again.
“Yes Captain I understand perfectly. I will continue informing you of the basics while letting you fill in the details unless you ask.”
“Very well Pan that is all I can ask for.” Jack looked around at all the bombers being prepared and suddenly got worried. “Pan what is the possibility that a bomber or something was launched before the Destroyers got here or we took the ship?” Pan’s eyes got big as she started tapping on her screen and then Jack found himself being jerked around again by another crewman as his mind raced. Suddenly being filled with the images of a small ship being loaded and God Officer Cans rushing toward the ship as berserkers rampaged in the background. He knew that the berserkers had come out of their pods when the God Captain and most of the God Officers had been killed by the Red Pepper crossing beams inside the ships Command and God Officer Decks. Now according to the time stamp on the recording, it had only been a few hours since the formation of the bubble with the ship stuck hard in the carbon /carbon diamond surface after killing more officers. Now some of the berserkers were already going after the God Officers as their minds degenerated. The surviving God Officers zipping around in their cans were in a hurry to leave before they got caught up in the berserker rampages. The senior God Officers not waiting for the junior cans not lucky enough to be there already as the little five hundred foot long currier ship slid out of the bay and headed into the cloud away from the hulk leaving dozens of officer cans racing after the ship as Berserkers caught up to them one by one and tearing them apart. The Cans practically exploding from the high internal pressure as the cans failed under the attacks. Jack realizing the reason for the cans were to enable a race from the depths of a very big planet to survive outside their natural environment of what earth would call a thousand atmospheres. Though the medical staff back on the Red Pepper that Jack had sent the surviving cans back to be examine at, probably already knew by now. Though they probably did not know a fraction of what Jack suddenly new now he had bothered to think about them.
Battleship Destroyer 2 (Battleship Destoryer) Page 15