Halsey shook his head. “I cannot do anything that will reveal that we have this new technology Turner. You are going to have to figure some way to retain Command for the next month and give me time to ship what you need in to get this New Home Colony established.”
“What? Why just a Month Admiral? If I manage to put old but hole in his place why should I have to worry about holding on any longer than the time for you to send me the needed orders giving me official command. Fact is why do you need me to be in command to begin with if you are going to send what is needed to establish the colony in the first place? You can send along a decent Commander for the Base Station.”
“If Ditzen has Command he will control all shipping in the area making it impossible for me to sneak in any transports to the New Home Colony. As for you having permanent Command of the Station let alone a Basestation is not likely. It turns out that there is a large faction at The Rock that thinks you and the slaves need to be arrested and imprisoned. You, for not following orders that you technically did not need to followed and the slaves because they think they are spy’s of the enemy.” Shaking his head as he turned red, Halsey continued. “You have the right idea Turner because I will not be able to protect you or the slaves. I am only a Supply and Transport Admiral now even if a do have a Flag and a brand new star. You are going to have to disappear in the next few months as shit hits the fan around here so you and the ex-slaves can work safely and come up with what we need to defeat the monsters at our gates. I am going to send you everything I can including enough prefabricated structures and equipment to house and feed a million people or two in those domes of yours that Zoote here says can easily house 6 million with an industrial base to take advantage of all the resources you have.”
“Millions? You are sending me a million people when we can’t even feed ourselves yet.”
“Yes I am sending administrators and a military Governor that has a lot of experience with aliens and secret isolated research basses to run the Colony with very specific instruction that you and your ex-slaves have a free hand to do what needs to be done. You will be in charge of the fleet and defense side of the base and what is produced at the shipyard factories Zoote has shown me and I hope we can start building to increase our production. I am also sending you the scientists and engineers you were working with before you took command of the Red Pepper along with as many other bright ones as I can find. You will produce and test the weapons and then I will send the finished products to be produced across the Republic. That is if everything goes according to plan. That is if you can keep that fool from taking over the Gama 13 Basestation without proper orders while I delay the morons on this end from sending the proper legal orders as long as possible. At least long enough for us to get the New Home research base established without anyone finding out about it.”
Jack shook his head no. “In order to keep such a base secret means you are going to have to restrict anyone from coming and going to the station but a very select few. Even someone knowing they are headed for or returning from such a base is enough for someone to eventually find it.”
“Come Turner. The Rock has been our best kept open secret for over a hundred years. You can do it with New Home.”
“Listen Admiral. The Spiders know about The Rock being the Republics’ main military base and have already found The Cloud. Eventually they are going to plant thousands of ships outside the damn cloud until they find or starve The Rock out. The only thing that is keeping them from doing it now is that they don’t know that The Rock is the Cornucopia or Heavy Metal of all Heavy Metal Stars they have been looking for. When that happens their whole fucking 10,000 ship war fleet is going to camp on our doorstep while they destroy the rest of humanities systems because they don’t need them. You had better start doing a better job of locking down the people that know about The Rock’s resources before the Spiders do find out from new human slaves. And if you are smart, the same goes for this damn Carbon Metal sphere. Ask Zoote. I am sitting on more metal than the Spider fleet that is trying to destroy and enslave the surviving humans has used in the last ten thousand years.Let Ditzen destroy the damn Gama 13 station and prison anyone that knows anything about what really is here. With your help we can build the New Home colony without this hunk of junk and do the job you want without the damn million colonists and without anyone knowing about us but you.”
“Damn it Turner. “That hunk of Junk Station is what is going to give me the ability to send what supplies and equipment I can. The million handpicked colonists will be the best and brightest refugees we can find from star systems we are abandoning and from across the Republic and is going to give me the ability to send youanything you need from outside the cloud where people like Ditzen and his supporting Admirals won’t even know about, let alone interfere. That is as long as The Rock is not being blockaded. You sure that enemy fleet Zoote told me about is coming? I was told that fleet scout operations are not my worry but that there is nothing out there. Any idea how long before they get here?”
Jack turned down the lights and looked over in that direction as he chewed his steak for a few seconds. “Hard to tell just looking at them but it looks like they are taking their time and staying closely packed. Probably sending out scouts trying to find out what happened to the fleet that was in this area to begin with. I have been too busy to keep a close watch on them.”
The Lieutenant turned and looked where Jack was looking and said. “Oh shit!” The mass of pin point lights flashing from the fleets collapsing black holes was easy to see with their ass’s pointed at the cloud as the ships slowed down approaching The Cloud. “They will probably stay far enough away to keep from getting detected as they study the cloud trying to find out what happened to their original fleet.
The Admiral looked from Jack to the Lieutenant and back again as he took a breath and a sip of his Coffee steaming on the desk. “Well that should give us some time then. You are going to have to make sure Ditzen does not succeed in taking command from you for as long as possible. Even if legitimate orders do show up in the next month. Luckily his backers don’t know he is having problems yet. I can’t help or interfere with Ditzen right now but I can see that you are short on personnel. Zoote says you need thousands of construction personnel to help get New Home started faster so I will send you as many workmen as I can with the shipments of prefab structures that was headed here but you have to keep control of the Basestation that I am using for an address or you will be on your own until I can get the Basestation downgraded to just a station in spite of its mass. Which is all we need there guarding the opening into that damn sphere and those Spider Battleships still inside of it. Which is what has most of The Rock’s Top Admiral’s terrified right now of besides you, the aliens and the hulk station itself. Though I am starting to believe there is something else going on right now concerning High Command that is disturbing but that is not your problem.”
Taking another drink of his coffee. “Once the Hulk Basestation is only a Station, the Commanding Rear Admiral or simple Commodore will no longer have any control over what comes or goes in the area. Even if old Vice Admiral Dimwitz is still Commanding. He could wind up spending the rest of his career at that station guarding the hulks in the bubble if his political backers pull enough strings and piss enough people off about making him the Basestation Commander before it gets declassified down to just a Station.”
“Aaa Admiral, Ditzen is already planning on getting rich mining the metals around the station. If he starts exporting metals from here to Earth or the Colony systems, the Spiders are going to catch on real fast once they capture a transport or two packed with valuable metals.”
“Well now the Rock does have a shortage of such things so establishing an official mine at the Station would short circuit his ambitions and send the product strait to The Rock where it is needed. Though we would have to keep prospecting down else they could trip over New Home.” The Admiral rubbed his chin. “Yes I think a simple mine
would also help retask enough tonnage toward mining to reduce it down to a simple Station once the mine was established without special acrobatics or much involvement on my part and if old Dimwitz is greedy enough he won’t even see it coming. You just have to keep him from taking over the station today or the next few weeks.”
“And how the hell am I supposed to do that Admiral if I have no way to discredit his damn orders. Sir.”
Zoote leaned in toward Jack. “Start thinking out of the Box Jack. There are hundreds of rules written over the centuries concerning turning over stations to new Commanders. Most have stopped being enforced over the decades but they are still there. Stop fixating on the stupid Orders you can do nothing about even if they are forged.”
The Comm sounded. “Admiral. Vice Admiral Ditzen is on comm.”
Taking a deep breath Jack looked down at the remnants of his meal. “Couldn’t have waited another 5 minutes could you ass hole.” Pinching the bridge of his nose as he closed his eyes for a couple of seconds as the Lieutenant hid the projections of Zoote and the Admiral. “Put him through.” He said as he looked up and back out the huge ports adorning his cabin.
“Vice Admiral Turner.” Ditzen burst out. “I see you are enjoying one last meal as a Vice Admiral. Good for you. Now get your butt up here so I can take over the Station. All the crews are here except for my marines. I expect them to be delivered as ordered by the time you get up here. Now get off your butt and get moving I am growing tired of waiting for your low life ass. Or do you just want me to read the crews my orders and take Command?”
Jack through his cloth napkins down next to his plate as he stood up. “I am coming Ditzen.”
Something caught his eyes as Jack stood up making him take a couple steps along the viewport and stopped. A smile came to his face. “Sorry Vice Admiral Ditzen but not all the Station’s Ships Crews are in attendance yet and per your Specific Orders, you still have 5 hours before your transport squadron arrives to attend the transfer of power.” Turning back around to his desk screen he hit the station wide Comm. “Your attention please. Vice Admiral Ditzen has gotten in a bit of a hurry for officially turning over Command of the Station. As per the Vice Admiral’s stated Orders and Republic Regulations, Command cannot be turned over for another 5 hours waiting the arrival and attendance of the Transport Squadron’s crews. Ships Captains are authorized to stand ships companies down at ease on Docking Ring A’s Cargo Deck or return to their ships for 5 hours. Ships Captains and Marine Commanders and all Senior Officers are authorized access to all areas of the Station as long as they do not interfere with station operations. Vice Admiral Turner, Commanding Officer, Gama 13 Hulk Station. Out.”
Jack turned back around to face the red faced Ditzen as Ditzen started screaming from the screen. “You can’t delay me from taking Command forever Turner.”
“Maybe not but I have another 5 hours, 6 if the crews of the Squadron are as slow as their transports are.” Jack smiled at Ditzen. “Excuse me for enjoying the Vice Admiral perks just a little longer Ditzen. Out.”
Jack hit his desk comm again. “Control. We have enough time to make another couple rounds with the Transports if we hurry. Have them send back as many of the Cargo Container train sleds as they can. We should be able to get another 5,000 to 10,000 containers along with the loaded transports if we push it. Have them pull out the long range Transceivers including the new ones while you are at it and get them installed in the Red Pepper as soon as possible.” Turning back to Zoote. “So tell me what old regulations I can use to delay this asshole before we get cut off.”
“Sorry Jack but you are going to have to do that yourself. You have already gotten a good start with the transport delay. You have 5 hours so best get reading.” With Jack’s open mouthed stare Zoote chuckled. “Lawyers, Judges and Politicians have been twisting and bastardizing ironclad rules to fit what they wanted to do as long as man has been in existence by arguing little things like the meaning of ‘Is.’ Even turning one of the most wealthy countries of old Earth with an Iron Clad constitution designed to make sure the Government stayed small with a list of rights and rules the Government could not break, into just suggestions and then twisting them to mean just the opposite of what their founders had meant and making it possible to enslave the populous to the rule of a few elite politicians. I cannot decide what or how to do the same for you. You are going to have to read the regulations and think outside the box yourself. You will have no problem pushing what you come across on your own much better than just going through the motions reciting what I tell you even if I could come up with something. Though you could use the teaching Simm to speed things up with a legal program I have added. I have also plucked out the Hundreds of regulations concerning Change of Commands scattered across the Dozens of Navel Agencies and Congress for your consideration. Some go back to the creation of the Republic Navy. They are a lot to go through in only 5 hours but I know you can do it.”
“Great. How long before I can count on getting transports if I do succeed. We still have not gotten our regular supply transports and I am still wondering where this steak came from though the baked potato tastes fresh from the farm.” Sitting back down and cutting off another bite of steak as the Lieutenant pushed her plate back and started reading something on her PDA. “Ditzen did say something about dumping our supply transports in some limbo someplace.”
“The first 12 ship convoy is already headed your way.” Halsey said with a smile. “I simply retasked the convoy waiting at the Beta 5 staging area for Pilots to head for The Rock. It is packed with prefabrication structures meant for The Rock expansion. You should be able to use everything they have including the handpicked Navel construction crews and engineers to add to your construction crews. The best we could find across the republic as usual for The Rock. The transports with the supplies you were supposed to have gotten over the last 6 months you will have to go and get. I managed to find where the first ones where sent and the rest should be with them. But when I tried retasking them I found Ditzen had put a security Comm lockout on that Staging Station. I am down loading the Staging area to you now.”
Jack tapped up the staging area on a navigation screen and smiled shaking his head. “Damn that is close and we have been starving for months.”
“What do you mean close? It is two weeks away from you at best with all the switch backs and dirty corridors slowing the transports down to a crawl according to my navigation display. Probably why Ditzen chose it. He knew we stopped using it years ago with the outpost all but abandoned, little better than a listening post now with the Corridors getting worse each year. If the damn cloud entry corridors were half as bad as those leading from it, we wouldn’t even have a listening post there anymore.”
“Yes but those switchbacks brought it only about a week from us if we drill a hole straight through the soup in a few places. We are getting pretty good at it now. I will jump over there as soon as I get this Station cleaned out and finish with the Vice Admiral. Just down load the orders authorizing me to take command of them Admiral. Don’t worry. They will think the orders came in with the Battleships. Oh and if I remember right didn’t you say something about a squadron of Destroyers due to the Rock. How about rerouting them this way as well. I suddenly have a whole bunch of 24 inch guns I can get ahold of though half of the barrels are burned out but we can repair them. The DD’s are Transports responsibility until they hit the rock aren’t they?”
“Yes they are not only my responsibility getting them to The Rock but putting and maintaining them in storage. Warehousing doesn’t want anything to do with them since a large part of the Navy considers them nothing but junk and Supply has their hands full already trying to find room for all the material flooding into The Rock now preparing for the next time the nebula gets blockaded.” The Admiral shook his head. “I have almost a hundred in long term storage in the Maze at The Rock’s Staging Station but that is damn close to the Station itself so you may have a problem getting t
hem.
“Thanks Admiral. So why not just make the Gama 13 Station the new Warehouse for the DD’s” Jack smiled.
“Nothing like asking for the impossible Turner.”
“Hey Admiral. I have my impossible with Ditzen and keeping New Home secret while getting it built to receive a million refugee colonists. Only fair.” Jack tapped up the regulations for changing Station Commanders Zoote had down loaded. He had been reading what amounted to the Navy’s book on Changing Ship and Station Commanders for Dummies that went through all the modern relevant regulations, procedures and ceremonies but did not get into the regulations themselves beyond what was officially needed. Now facing the full regulations listed by Zoote, Jack could only shake his head. “Damn I can hardly understand some of the older ones I have scanned in just a few seconds and there are so damn many.”
The Lieutenant reached over and stabbed the last piece of Jack’s Steak and plopped it in her mouth. “Well now that you are finished with your wonderful steak you can get in the Simm.” She said around the steak in her mouth. Don’t forget to put your notes and relevant regulations on the PDA in the Simm so they well transfer out. Now get going. I will make sure you are out in plenty of time when the Transport arrives and that you are not disturbed. I think I am going to have some desert. Whatever that stuff the steward has on that desert tray looks marvelously irresistible. She certainly can cook.” Patting her slightly bulging stumach. “To Dessert or not to Dessert. That is the question.”
Jack watched her stare at the tray of desserts like a cat getting ready to pounce as he headed for the Simm closet adjacent to the cabins bedroom.
Chapter 18; Change of Command
Jack stopped next to the 3 foot tall platform above the deck of the sled. Flags were attached to all 4 corners with the rest of the sled dressed up like a parade float with flashing colored lights and bunting. “Damn it Lieutenant, I look like a damn peacock.” Jack’s brand new Battlesuit had received Republic armor plates glued on to make his new suit look like the suit he wore during the Paprika campaign complete with bright red stripes down his sides. A crystal coating like the one covering the ship had been added over the top, making it shine with every light in sight reflecting off of it. The red strips between the black armor blocks were now glowing bright red with a light of their own.
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