Battleship Destroyer 2 (Battleship Destoryer)

by Larry Roberts

  He just had to stall old Vice Admiral Ditzen from taking control of the Gama 13 Hulk station until any scouts the Vice Admiral might send out looking for them had nothing to make them look more closely if one happened onto the mountain range of domes where the cloud happened to drop back down to the bubble. Though the probability of a scout tripping over the few square miles of domes they were using in the middle of a million square miles of mountains plastered on the surface of a trillion square mile bubble was slight. The survey crew that had found the mountains had even found it impossible to simply go back and find the mountains again even with all the Navigational equipment they had when it was decided to put a mining and research outpost there. A GPS (global positioning system) had not been established on that section of the Bubble yet and even as accurate as the Inertial Navigation System was on the scout, after weeks of gravitational anomalies around the bubble it only took a couple of micro degrees of error and the mountain range had been lost. Taking 3 days of ever more frantic searching by a growing number of scouts to finally find it again. A beacon was placed to make it possible to find it after that which Jack had immediately killed when it was decided to abandon the Gama Hulk Station since a secure GPS network had been established by then. Though Jack was going to kill that as well once the base was set up and go to the same system The Rock was using. With martialing or staging yards a distance away from New Home. Finger prints were in the process of being taken of the surrounding Surface of the Bubble so no matter where someone that was from the Mountain Dome Base hit the bubble they would know which way to go to find it.

  The alarm went off and Jack slapped it with a sigh. He had woken up a good ten minutes early and figured trying to sleep anymore was a waste of time and had sat up staring in amazement at the dozen ships scattered out across the domes unloading construction equipment and refugees or being repaired or rebuilt.

  The Lieutenant slipped her legs and arms around Jack from the bed behind him and hugged tight laying her head on his shoulder and purred. Pressing her huge breasts into his back. A Pair of Destroyers glided by with little contrails from their engines streaking out behind them and a barely perceptible cone out in front scooping up matter to create that contrail. It was a shame there was not enough material in open space to do the same and rid the need for the Destroyers to carry reaction mass, Jack thought to himself. A flight of 4 scout bombers took off from a dome with a big hatch in the side and climbed up past the port almost close enough to touch. Jack could see the pilots and sensor operators next to and behind them. Closing his eyes he could almost feel himself strapped in the Cockpit with his hands in control of a million horses at his back ready to drive him across space but no harness and seat ever felt so nice as what was wrapped around him and rubbing all the right places.

  Jack sighed sadly. He knew that before breakfast he could bang the Lieutenant until he wore them both out without completion, (at least his, though she had no problem except for making him deaf for half the day), no matter how many times they had tried over the last 6 months. No, he didn’t need that frustration to begin his day with even as much as he wanted to. Though if he didn’t have so much to do he would have given it the old try just to make the Lieutenant happy.

  Jack turned and gave her a kiss and then stood up and headed for a quick shower leaving the Lieutenant pouting. A couple minutes later the Lieutenant came in, used the head and then climbed in the shower with Jack and started rubbing him in just the right places, just in time for Jack to finish rinsing off and force himself to leave already becoming frustrated at turning the willing Lieutenant down twice in a row. “Later love. We can have a long lunch.” Not that he minded satisfying the Lieutenant several times in a row with the incredible endurance he had before breakfast but being left high and dry himself with such a beautiful woman passed out and then having to go to work just made it impossible to keep his mind on the job. Feeling like crying, Jack dried himself and slipped on a ship’s jump suit and stepped out into his cabin as the Steward placed a bowl on the table.

  “Well at least I get a decent breakfast.” Jack sat down at the table in front of the bowl. “I haven’t had Bacon and eggs seems like forever.” Looking down at the bowl of off white cream. “This doesn’t look or smell like bacon and eggs. Didn’t you say yesterday that…?”

  “That was before we tore out most of the farms to transfer them, stopping production, we got 50,000 new crewmen and we found out late last night that not one of the ships in the squadron, Battleships or Transports, have over a weeks’ worth of food supplies.” Smiling at Jack. “You needed your sleep so I made an executive decision for you last night at midnight and combined all our fresh produce and meat production into the communal galleys again. Luckily we had a few days of full farm and livestock production before we had to shut down to move everything so we have a few weeks of fresh food before we have to go back to strait Meal Rations. I would suggest that we go with a good fresh breakfast and a mix of food and Meal Rations for lunch and dinner and we may be able to stretch the fresh food until the farms are expanded enough to feed everyone something fresh for every meal. But it is going to be months before the farms and livestock are back up to full production.” Smiling down at Jack. “Now eat your mush-meal. That is what everyone is getting for breakfast. Even bread is going to take a few days to get back up to full production though we should have enough for a slice or two for everyone for dinner tonight with a few greens in the stew. Sorry for getting your hopes up with the steak meals the last few nights but at the time most of the crew was starting to eat good even if it was mostly greens and I thought you deserved a good steak from one of the first slaughters instead of the meat stew everyone else had. Especially with all the transports arriving. You would think that at least one of them would have had something besides construction and mining equipment on them”

  “You have got to be kidding.” Jack had read the scouting reports but had hoped they would find something. “A whole squadron of transports and not one of them is loaded with consumables?”

  “That’s a fact Jack. Oh a, sorry Admiral. I couldn’t resist.”

  Jack buried his head in his hands as he rubbed his eyes and face. His stomach not caring that he did not have green eggs and ham started growling for whatever the hell was there. Shaking his head Jack started eating his porridge. Deciding he really didn’t want to talk to the Doctor about his little before breakfast problem after all. He had more important problems to deal with. Like what fool of an Admiral would deploy over 50,000 men in 2 squadrons and not stock op on food and consumables for them. He knew we were starving to death from the reports I had sent up the line. Jack thought to himself. Could be part of why his flag was taken away.

  The Lieutenant came in wearing a Jump suit that was zipped almost as fare down as Red liked to wear hers. Giving Jack a frustrated look he did not even notice, she started to sit down. Taking one whiff of the steaming bowl just placed on the table, she suddenly turned before her butt had even touched the chair and ran back into the bedroom slamming the door behind her.

  Watching her suddenly leave Jack’s eyes grew big. “What the hell is her problem?” And suddenly Jack thought he knew what was pissing her off which was making him feel guilty and ashamed for turning her down. But he didn’t know what he could do about it, making him feel even worse. Suddenly Jack knew what he could do after breakfast as a smile came to his face, stuffing another spoon of cereal into his mouth. Sometimes he could perform half way decently after he got something in his belly.

  Admiral Halsey and his desk suddenly popped in across the breakfast table from Jack as he was taking another bite of his porridge. Still upset with his mind on the Lieutenant, Jack simply continued to chew after pausing in surprise for a second as he realized the Admiral was there.

  Before Jack could say or do anything else Admiral Halsey leaned across his desk and growled. “What the hell have you done Turner? Who told you to scrap 8 of our battleships? We are busting our butts trying
to build up our battleship numbers. Scrapping 8 of them is unacceptable for any reason.”

  Jack swallowed. “Aaa. Good morning to you too Admiral. As far as I know we are not scrapping any ships. Vice Admiral Ditzen forced me to severely damage their engines while destroying most of their weapons to save the Station and our lives. We are merely repairing them as best as we can and making a few improvements while we are at it.”

  “What the hell do you mean, Improvements?”

  “Well, by taking out the scrap turrets and most of the crew decks we are increasing the Cargo space by almost 50% to start with. Then by making a little stretch in the hull, we are again doubling the Cargo tonnage above that. You said you were lacking transports. I am giving you 8 new transports able to carry almost 3 times the cargo instead of scrapping them. After all, the only thing the original Battleships were good for was Transporting Cargo like they were being used for but doing a piss pore job of it. They were worthless against everything the enemy has anyway.” Jack punched up the plans of the new conversion and sent them to the Admirals Desk. “They should be back into Cargo service in 2 to 3 weeks. And what is this about the new, new Battleships being Different with fewer and thicker shield decks and Congressional crews?”

  “Politics Turner.” The Admiral looked at the over 3,000 foot long stretched Transports Jack had used the combined hulled Bounty as inspiration. “What? Two to 3 weeks? That is impossible.” Frowning as he tried to lean closer to the screen. “What are those lines or ribs down the sides?”

  “The ribs down the sides are for reinforcing the longer hull to start with but someone came up with the bright idea of stacking thousands of cargo containers outside the hull on those ribs. Two to 3 weeks is easy since all we are doing is adding hull material using a form ring to shape the foam steel as the hull lengthens for more cargo decks with the Technology the Slaves and my engineers have worked out while putting the Paprika and her sister ship’s hulk together to make the Bounty. They had to add a short plug between the two ships half hulls to make them line up perfectly and distribute the strain with much shorter side ribs than what the new rebuilds have now that we know how useful the side ribs are.” Smiling at the Admiral. “No, we have to have them done by then in order to be off the Station before Ditzen takes over Command.”

  The Admiral chuckled. “Yes I watched the tapes of that damn dance you did a dozen times and I still can’t believe how you did it.” Then his face turned stern. “You are going to be in a world of shit as well when the Supreme Admiral finds out you shanghighed some 50,000 Crewmen and Marines.” Shaking his head. “I managed to get a couple thousand crewmen using my transports as an excuse before I was told to knock it off. Which Brings up another problem.”

  Jack stared at the steaming spoon of mush as the Admiral talked. Then when he paused. “Ya, I have 50,000 more mouths to feed and no food. What fool deploys with 50,000 troops and no food? Not one of his ships had more than a weeks’ worth of food left on them for their own crews.” Jack practically growled. “We have been on sort ration MRE’s for almost 6 months and we are damn near out of them and the damn Battleships have made that even worse.”

  Halsey in the middle of trying to find the right words to continue what he wanted to say was taken aback by Jack’s venom. He suddenly found himself watching Jack stuff the spoon full of something he obviously did not want to eat into his mouth. Finally. “One reason Ditzen lost his flag was the third time his squadron spent a month eating MRE’s and then ran out of ordinance during a War Game because he failed to even schedule resupply ships after leaving with his crews larder empty to carry more ordinance so he wouldn’t have to be bothered about munition ships. The man has no concept of what it takes to supply and run a Navy.” Shaking his head. “Actually that is the problem with most of the increasing number of politically appointed Admirals the Navy has been forced to accept over the last 2 years. Most have no concept of supplies or care if their crews get fed as long as they can have their steaks and a fancy battleship to impress the politicians that put them there. Which is why most think anything but Battleships are a waste of money and resources. At least that leaves us Navel Career Collage Graduates in most of the support roles. The reason I was given another Star for winning the blockade battle was because I was commanding Transports and not Battleships. Even then they keep reducing my power as they try to micro manage everything even though they don’t know their ass’s from thruster bells.”

  Shaking his head the Admiral continued. “In order to keep our funding before the war, more and more Congressmen had been demanding the use of the Navy to pay political debts and now that Earths Congressionals are blaming the old guard for the losses in the Rim Battle they have convinced the Colony planets to allow Earth to run the show. The Admiral that cost us half the fleet was one such Political appointment. Ditzen is another. Most around the Supreme Admiral are now Political Appointees.” The Admiral seamed to Deflate. “We lost a lot of good Captain’s and Admirals when we lost the fleet during the first encounter with the Spiders 2 years ago when they first appeared and most of the best that were left 7 months ago trying to save the half that made it out. The Damn Political appointees are now in the majority at the Rock and it is all out war between the morons that can’t think beyond lining their own pockets while getting the Congressman that supported them reelected and the few Admirals that want to win this war and save the Republic.”

  Shaking his head the Admiral looked at Jack. “I was able to reassign the Destroyers coming in to you since no one wants them anyway but I can’t assign them a tanker to take them to you. They are already tasked with prior commitments. The Fact that they are supposed to be my Tankers and that the damn new Battleships don’t need them anymore is beside the point. The New Politically appointed Battleship Admirals don’t seem to give a shit about feeding there men but they are not about to take a chance that their Battleships might need some reaction mass so a hundred tankers are sitting at The Rock just in case the Battleships (that don’t require reaction mass anymore), may need them. While the Transports that don’t have the new engines carry half the cargo they could so they can carry enough reaction mass to make it to The Rock without requiring remassing anywhere away from a planetary system or Station near a mass source. Which is why I have been upgrading the old Battleships as fast as I can but I never thought about actually turning them into Transports.” Looking at the plans Jack had sent him. “And these rails along the outside are… Different to say the least. How do you know the damn containers won’t just fall off once you start accelerating?” Grimacing at Jack.

  The Admiral looked again at the plans for the converted ships and shook his head. “Damn it Turner. Why are you stripping out 2 of the engines from the Battleships? They won’t be able to carry the additional hull weight let alone carry more cargo. Not to mention where the hell you are getting the material to make the new hulls? You melting down the station?”

  “Not at all Admiral we are using the material from the 30 foot thick armored decks along with thinning the ship’s own 20 foot thick armored hull to create the new stretched hulls. Hollowing the armored decks out to form a 20 foot tall honeycombed cargo deck sandwiched between the 2 new 5 foot thick decks. Turning the decks into flat trusses that are actually stronger than the solid deck. The 2 massless ion engines on each converted Transport is plenty of power. That will give me 16 Ion engines for my other transports that still have the old engines. Espeacialy the new ones I just acquired.”

  “Other Transports?” The Admiral said puzzled.

  “Yes, the much lengthened Paprika had its engines destroyed in the cloud before we converted it to the bounty using Slave tech engines which we need to replace. The Bulk Transport Ditzen had converted into a prison and torture ship needs 2 if it is going to be able to out run the Spider ships with a pair going to my Tanker to support the fighters, bombers and destroyers the Bulk transport will be carrying and supporting.” Jack switched the screen to the Bulk transport’s conv
ersion plans. “As you can see Admiral it should be able to handle a thousand fighters and bombers safe in side with the ribs running along the outside to dock about 50 Destroyers to the ship itself and support a hundred Destroyers as a tender if I had them. I am not sure which of the transports Ditzen brought I am going to upgrade or even if I am going to keep them but I am sure I will need all 16 engines and then some if I decide to use them to upgrade the DD’s.”

  “You are lengthening the bulk carrier too?” Halsey was surprised. “The damn thing is already 3,000 feet long and 500 wide.”

  “Ya but like I said, it is only metal and I have plenty of that. At a mile long it will be able to support a hundred Destroyers making strikes deep inside the enemy lines with enough supplies to last 6 months at least. Take the battle to them where they least expect it and have fewer defenses to resist attacks.” Dropping his spoon into the empty bowl and sitting back as he looked at the ceiling. “You know Admiral, with the other 4 squadrons that returned to The Rock when they couldn’t destroy the Spider Battleship I would have enough destroyers to take on that Spider fleet headed this way once I get them all 16 inch guns.” Thinking for a couple of seconds. “You wouldn’t happen to know where I could get some more 16 inch guns would you. I hear the survivors from the Fringe Battle have added their 16’s for the new 24’s.” Leaning forward as his smile turned grim. “Get me those Destroyers Admiral.”