“The spy was trying to hide his or her identity. We don’t know what sex it is Lieutenant but we know the Captain had the responsibility.”
Jack looked at the Lieutenant. “Besides even if the spy is not the Captain. Captains don’t make stupid mistakes that get ships and thousands of people killed and get it swept under the rug. Not here.” Shaking his head. “But you are right, we need to find out what happened.”
A few minutes later after Jack had time to cool down and think, they walked down the front personnel ramp of the Phoenix. Jack greeted Pan first, ignoring the Captain. “I am damn impressed Pan at what you have done with the Station. I am still having a hard time believing you were able to move the Hulk here and so fast though I was told you used the DD Squadron with battleship engines installed on them. I did not know we had enough of the old battleship reaction mass engines to equip a full squadron… No, don’t tell me you used the new Ion engines?” His mind flashed back to the DD that had just passed the Phoenix with no reaction mass tail. He had been too preoccupied with landing and wanting to kill the Captain. Jack shook his head.
“Yes Admiral. They were the only engines that would get the Station here in the needed time. It will only take us a few days to replace the engines if you wish Admiral but it will slow down rebuilding the Transports.”
“No. it looks like we may need them right where they are I am sorry to have to say.” Glancing at the group lined up next to Pan. Most of whom he knew but not all. “Now what is this about a Staff?”
“Admiral Spencer now has one of our Secure Comms delivered with the medicine packs and we had a long talk. He said that you needed a staff you could trust to take most of the back breaking work load off your shoulders so you can spend your time doing what you need to do and make better decisions. He ordered me to provide you with a staff and told me to tell you that you did not have a choice.”
Jack spent a few minutes talking with his new staff. While he was listening to one of them he idly looked over at Captain Leslie and heard in his head.
‘Talking about a buffoon monkey getting a staff. Just wait moron for my message to get through with one of the Company ships I told to head for The Rock when I strung all the transports out across the cloud. Hell, you are probably too stupid to even realize they are gone. I have to admit it was smart thinking trying to keep this little station from Vice Admiral Ditzen but if the Cabal sent The Rock’s Chief of Security here there must be something here worth a lot more than just a mining base. Is it possible they already pulled off the coup and are just hunting down the remnants of the Navy Command? No this kid can’t be all that is left. No, it has to be because of all the damn publicity this kid has gotten and they are just trying to shut him up before he can cause trouble. Fact is, from what I have seen on the News Channels TF-58 has been getting while stuck in limbo, the Admirals that were in Command of the Rim Battle that the Earth Congress has been pushing on the entertainment channels trying to make them into hero’s to the Public, do not seem to be doing very well compared to this moron. Yes, that must be it. So what is taking so long for Ditzen to kill him? I have heard of a dozen high ranking Admirals and Captains he has killed before and since he became Chief of Security for the Rock even before the mission to decimate the non-Congressional controlled half of the fleet.”
Her mind seemed to pause for a few seconds. Then. “Ok that explains why he is commanding this little damn squadron. Ditzen must have come close to killing him so he got out of the station. Well moron, that isn’t going to work after all. I can’t wait to see his face when the Congressional Battleships show up here and turn his little fleet into scrap. But hopefully after I get done having some fun with you Admiral Turner.’
The Captain’s smile widened as Jack stood shocked as the Captains words flashed into his mind almost too fast to understand as the Officer in front of him seemed to be talking in slow motion as the Captain continued. ‘Now get this over with moron so I can get back to work ruining your little mission to resupply Task Force 58. I have already delayed it by days stringing the transports out to hell and back and I have already got a strike with the Transports here in the docks almost ready to hit that will bring all the work on the Transports to a halt. Another few days and I will incite a riot across the whole station as over worked as the crews are. Just a matter of placing the right words in the right ears and beating and killing the right people and making it look like the station management is at fault.’ Chuckling to herself. ‘And this station is going to be burning before it gets finished. God I love my job. I can’t wait to kill you during all the confusion and in another couple of months the Cabal won’t have to worry about a TF-58 that has already all but starved to death when they get around to attacking. We will be able to put our own crews in their ships and launch the attacks on the Colony systems that much sooner. I may even get my own squadron to command. The fucking Congressionals can’t take a ship’s Command away from me once that moron gives me the Red Pepper. I will have to fight off the congressmen demanding to be my sponsor putting me in with the Congressional elites themselves.’
Jack turned to the Construction Chief in front of him interrupting him. “Has anyone been killed working on the transports since they started arriving?”
“Why yes Admiral. Most strange circumstances even. While we have had injuries during the construction of the Station we had our first death only hours ago when the suit of a worker got ripped working on the hull of the Red Pepper. It was a brand new suit and what obviously ripped it should not have been able to. What I don’t understand as well is how the rumor got started that we are issuing old defective suits to the work crews.” The Chief turned to glance at Captain Leslie. “If you want more details you will have to talk to Captain Leslie. She insisted on doing the investigation into the death herself.” Turning back to Jack. “Fact is, there has suddenly been a rash of very bad accidents and rumors going around. The worst is about sending Tramp ships up against Battleships as cannon fodder. Another is about stripping the Tramp ship crews and sending their families to work in deep dark molten hot core mines to die. Only we have no core mines. And the surface strip mines we have require experienced workers not vacuum rats that don’t know one end of a bot shovel from another or what a good surface vain even looks like. Machines do a much better and faster job with their operators and controllers taking years of education and training learning what to mine as well as how. It simply does not make sense.”
“Well then I will have to check into the Rumors then. Can’t have anything slowing up production. So I am going to have all the transports done in time?”
“Yes Admiral. I am having to do some shuffling around but it actually works out better having some of the transports strung out and delayed getting here. We are able to concentrate more on the ones already here and get them out the hatch allowing us to knock off the delayed Transports in no time at all. Oh and I wanted to say I am sorry about the 4 transports that were destroyed in your battle with a Republic Battleship Admiral but I think we can make up for their lose. Though I find it hard to believe that a Republic Battleship would fire on and destroy helpless Transports. At least you destroyed that sucking Battleship.”
Jack turned his head enough to get a sudden blast of panic from the Captain while his new Shipyard Chief was talking. The Captain started talking to herself.‘He destroyed a Republic Battleship? No! He couldn’t have really destroyed a Republic Battleship with a fucking DD. The most he could have done is damage it with a few torpedoes maybe from hiding in the cloud. That is it. And then it limped away and this bozo is trying to inflate his reputation by claiming it as a kill. Yes that is it. It makes sense now. I just hope that at least one of the damn stupid Company Transport Captains managed to transmit my message to the Battleship before it blew them out of space. Yes. I bet they have orders to destroy any TF-58 ships and after they got my message they destroyed the Transports. Four Company Transports mean they destroyed them all. Good, that means there is no way he
could even know about the message let alone trace it back to me.’
Jack looked up to watch a Company Transport with the big orange Galactic Express logo painted across the flat sided hull drift around behind the Red Pepper toward a docking birth to unload cargo before transferring down to the construction docks. Jack had checked on the other Company transports after hearing what the first had said. He was surprised to find that they had continued on their own down the Secret corridor towards New Home with them making sure that the corridor entry was not compromised. They had found it disturbing when a strange Captain had ordered them to proceed toward The Rock countermanding Jack’s specific orders originally given to all the transports. They both chose to listen to their original orders after hearing the verbal message they were supposed to give to several specific Admirals along with the secret down loaded message when they got to The Rock. Especially since they were not even sure it was Captain Leslie giving them the strange orders as secretive as the man was being half hidden in shadows of the Red Peppers Captain’s Cabin which was the only thing they were sure about. The extremely (grossly to be more accurate) generous pay vouchers downloaded with the message was even stranger as they were not any of the companies accepted formats. Though when Jack talked to the other Captains he realized that whomever it was, had mixed up the pay order vouchers between the company ships. Giving each Company ship one of the other Company ship’s shipping order and pay voucher.
The only thing about the culprit ordering them to ignore Jack’s orders that Jack knew for certain since the videos of the guy and the meeting did not seem to record well enough to even guess who was giving them the orders with some kind of video and audio jammer, was that the Vouchers had an official Congressional Seal on them that could not be faked or reproduced if separated from the message and voucher guarantying payment of the ridiculously high sum with each of the recipients signatures. Jack could not wait for his human and exslave tech experts to get a chance to break and open up the messages after the ships got in with the physical evidence to put this Captain away. Now that he knew for sure. No, Jack could not wait to get enough evidence to convict her and then dump her out an airlock. Killing thousands of Tramps and trying to have everyone he knew and loved killed was more than enough reason for anyone. Not to mention all the others she probably has killed in the past.
Then the nervous Captain started babbling in her mind about all the murders she had committed that Jack would never prove and how much she enjoyed doing them even though she had just been fallowing orders. Jack could not believe the woman as she kept incriminating herself. Confessing to following orders for political murders with planted lies as well as real physical murders of people that got in the way of the Congressional Democrat Communists. It only took a few minutes before he was long past caring if he had enough evidence to Convince Admiral Spencer of her guilt. It was all he could do not to pull his blaster and put a plasma ball through her head. But she was giving him such an education he could not believe. Jack smiled at the Galactic Express ship sliding around the station trying to decide if he even wanted the evidence it carried. Then Captain Lesley started to turn around and look where Jack was looking.
“Come to Attention Captain!” Jack burst out getting the Captain’s attention as she snapped to Attention before she could see the Company ship she thought had been destroyed. The last thing he needed right then was for her to know one of the Company ships had survived. Stepping up to face the Captain and then stand there without saying anything as he stared at the Captain standing at Attention for several minutes as the ship drifted out of sight behind the ships already docked.
The Captain’s disgust at Jack making her stand there at attention as her hate started to boil up and forced her to talk to herself about how she despised Jack and any Career Naval Officer. Listing the many ways she could kill Jack as soon as she got the orders. And to kill an admiral she needed direct orders from a Cabal Admiral and the nearest one she knew about was Ditzen. She could not wait to get to Ditzen on the station to receive permission to kill Jack. Though most of the people she had killed she regretted even though she was just following orders when she thought about them, if she thought about them at all. But for some reason she was starting to hate this kid but could not put a finger on why. She just needed a few seconds alone with Admiral Ditzen. Just long enough to get his approval and then that fucking Turner was dead meat. Though she suddenly started thinking of getting a good fuck from Jack just before she killed him. ‘Oh that would be so satisfying. I love to kill the ones I get the hots for while I climax but to bad there isn’t a mine shaft I can drop the body in when I am done to hide all the evidence that would leave behind.I just love giving them the shaft after I get the shaft. No sense in wasting good meat while making it look like an accident. But without a shaft I will just have to making it look like a tragic heart attack unless I can entice him down to the planet and into a mine after I get my orders.’ Orders she knew she would get.
Jack was surprised when he felt a wave of regret wash over him from deep inside the Captain. The woman suddenly hoping that she wouldn’t get the orders so she could have some fun with Jack without killing him. She was actually getting tired at all the killing.
Shaking it off. “Shall we retire to the Red Pepper and the Conference room?” Jack finally said trying to smile instead of pulling his blaster and blowing the Captain’s head off. The Red Pepper’s air lock was looking better and better the more he heard even if she was feeling some regrets. “You go ahead and prepare the conference room for the ceremony and recheck that the papers are correctly filled out Captain. We still have some unfinished business to discuss.”
‘Oh yes. Make me the Captain of the fleet’s most powerful ship.’ Suddenly getting excited. She had scanned the Red Peppers Battlefiles while falling in love with the ship and its power. Not associating Jack with the ships actions as if the ship itself had done everything without Jack even being aboard. Her prejudice preventing her from seeing anything that contradicted her beliefs. ‘Hell I can take the Red Pepper out a few miles and destroy the damn transports all by myself once I am in full command of the ship. But then once Admiral Turner was dead with Ditzen in Command of the Station there was no reason to kill the transports or anyone.’ She said to herself as relief flooded over her. She started chuckling as she saluted Jack with vigor then slipping her hand briefly into her pocket as she turned and then she slapped the shoulder of the officer next to her in her apparent excitement. “See you in the conference room.” She said aloud and then to herself. ‘And then one more murder and I will never have to kill anyone again. Well. That is after a quick trip to talk to Admiral Ditzen. I will have to make sure I have fun this last time. I will have to look around and see where the nearest mine was on the planet. A base and operation this big has to have a good sized mine on the planet below or nearby moon to support it or it would quickly die from lack of basics. But then I have spent to many years training as an engineer not to know for certain that the base is swimming in mining resources from someplace nearby as rapidly as they are constructing things. Yes I will have to check out the mines just for the fun of it before I decide how to kill that moron kid Admiral.’
‘No. not moron. After all he did save my life and possible the rest of TF-58.’ Suddenly not sure. Did she really have to kill the kid after he made her the Captain of his ship? It was bad enough that she had orders to sabotage everything that threatened the Congressionals and killed that worker on the Red Peppers hull to start a revolt. Did she really need to follow those orders once she became a ship’s captain? Her, Captain of her own ship.’
Jack watched her trying to keep from running with joy after returning her salute in shock. All he wanted to do was get her disgusting looks and mind out of his sight and hearing while he finished up business.
“Admiral. I need to talk to you about the Captain and making her the Red Pepper’s new Captain.” Pan said from the other end of the line in Godspeak.
&n
bsp; Even the thought of making Captain Lesley the Commanding officer of the Red Pepper had him ready to pull his pistol out and shoot the person that even wanted to talk about it. Walking up to Pan as he gritted his teeth, Jack put his nose up next to hers and trying his best to whisper while controlling his rage. “I think the Captain deliberately cut the transports free so she could tell the Company ships Captain’s to make a dash for The Rock with the secret Messages I want your people to help decipher. I am sure she is responsible for thousands of deaths that would have included ours if she had gotten her messages to The Rock. I am not about to put her in Command of the Red Pepper. Fact I am planning on kicking her out the damn Red Peppers airlock just as soon as our people get those messages decoded.”
Jack had his face pointed away from most of the staff even though he was practically whispering in her ear to keep his conversation with Pan private, though he was speaking God speak back at her without realizing it. Gutner Dank (the Red Ape that had saved his life multiple times and was now on his staff as security Chief), was on that side directly in front of him and had heard every word even though he was a few feet away and not seeming to be paying attention to anything. Gutner suddenly gave Jack the combat sign for silence and walked down the line of staff members as he pulled out his PDA that looked different than most and held it chest high as he walked around the Officer Captain Leslie had slapped on the shoulder before departing. Then he returned to the other end of the line without giving any outward sign that anything was amiss still looking at his PDA. Then in an off dialect of Ape speak he said to Pan in a low voice. “The Captain left a transmitting device on the shoulder of Commander Quinten. It is on her opposite shoulder so I believe the Admiral’s comments were not overheard even if she has a translator for God Speak. Please ask the Admiral how he wants to handle this?”
Battleship Destroyer 2 (Battleship Destoryer) Page 94