“And what if she kills the crew of one of the 2 DD’s we leave behind to finish construction, steals one or both and runs back to The Rock to report after blowing up the installation half built after we leave?”
“Lieutenant. You must have missed my talk with Pan dealing with that issue. The Spider Gods have been dealing with slaves for tens of thousands of years at least and the ex-slaves know all the tricks. Did you not notice the thin gold collar around her neck? The Marines, a few crewmen we trust and the main frame computer all have the key codes to blow her head off if she tries anything or leaves the moon. I went out of my why to explain to her part of the truth, using the collars on the Congressional crew as an excuse. But to my surprise she seems to have realized the truth about her own collar and readily accepted the fact that she was stranded on this iceball without getting upset. I am still trying to figure that out.” Shaking his head then continuing. “The DD’s we left behind to help finish placing structures also have special additions to prevent the ships from being taken over as do the Transports. The Tankers and Transports that will be sent later to shuttle between the transfer stations we are constructing from New Homes unused second habitat module and here will have the same equipment. So relax already and trust Pan if you don’t trust me.”
“Damn you.” She hit him on the shoulder rocking him in his seat. “I TRUST you. I just don’t trust that bitch and I didn’t know about her collar being anything but the new stupid fashion statement going around the ships.” Starting to leave the cockpit. “Hey, Pan had one of those collars on when we first met her. If she could get it off I am sure little miss blow up boobs can figure a way to get her’s off.”
“Pan had access to the God’s Master Tool for taking them off safely.” Jack tried not to laugh. “Old miss blow up boobs can’t get close to one and they can’t be copied or one of Pans ancestors would have figured out how over the last 10,000 years.” Jack grabbed her butt and pushed her the rest of the way out of the chair and out of the cockpit so he could get out.
“I still don’t trust the Killer Ice Queen.” The Lieutenant sneered.
Chapter 26; The First Maze Battle
As Jack approached the shuttles hatch he heard a pipe whistle as everyone in sight stopped what they were doing and came to attention. The pipe stopped when his foot touched the ship’s deck. “Admiral Turner arriving.” Blared the PA system across the hanger and ship. Jack returned the salutes and everything went back to normal as if nothing had happened except for Jack feeling like an ass.
Jack’s Comm beeped. “Admiral, crew is aboard, mustered and at departure stations. DD’s are secured on their outer racks. Engines are hot and answering bells. Ship and all cargo is secure and ready for space. Course is plotted and laid in. Pilot is at his station and has ship in standby for maneuvers. Ship and crew are ready to depart on your orders Admiral.”
“Very well Number One. Take her out according to my logged orders. Over.”
“By your logged Command Admiral. Bridge Out.”
The PA whistled. “Ship’s attention. All hands stand by for departure in three, two, one and.”
The moon outside the Aircurtain hatch started moving as one of the DD’s that was left behind, slid past with a huge piece of structure in front of it that had been attached to the outside of one of the transports, headed for the surface. The Skeleton Transport that was mostly just a long pole hull with engines at one end and a bridge at the other now half empty orbiting the moon slid past a few seconds later with more attached modules along its spine destined for the moon below.
The PA whistled again. “Ship is underway. Stand down from departure stations. Set cruise condition 4 across the ship. B section has the watch. Set standard rotation. That is all.”
The deck crews started to thin out as Jack entered Flight ops and logged the shuttle in by plugging the shuttle’s flight and maintenance recorder key card into its own slot with the shuttle’s number over the top. The little screen above the slot acknowledging the key and that the shuttle was indeed sitting where it was supposed to be in the hanger. The screen beeped in satisfaction and showed a small list of basic actions needed to be performed before the shuttle could be used again. Mostly dealing with consumables that were already being addressed by the deck crew and the shuttles dedicated Crew Chief/Flight Engineer/Cargo Grunt. The row of Key screens for the other craft that had recently returned to the ship, already starting to turn green to show that they were ready do depart again if needed. Though once the ship had left the system and the shuttles were no longer needed, some would turn to other colors denoting preplanned or scheduled maintenance and inspections that were needed. Mostly depending on how many total hours each shuttle, boat, craft, fighter or bomber had flown.
After hundreds of years in space, very few pieces of equipment broke or failed unexpectedly though it did happen. Otherwise with the tens of thousands of parts making up any space ship no matter how small, maintenance even on a shuttle would have been too costly to fly. Jack had once read about the early shuttles when man was just reaching for space taking tens of thousands of hours, even months of maintenance for each and every flight. Jack smiled as he watched the row of screens slowly turn green one by one before turning away to head for his cabin and some much needed sleep.
He had gotten little sleep while the witch was on board and now that she was off his ship and actually doing something that just may help, Jack was beat. Even if she tried to take over the Moon it could wait until he had some sleep. Jack glanced at the shuttles Crew Chief patting the hull while wiping away a smudge from the side of his shuttle then walk away cleaning his hands with the rag before he reached up and started undoing the neck of his shipsuit. He was done for the day as well and looking forward to evening chow even if it was only emergency rations with a few spices and fillers the cooks threw in trying to make it taste better.
Yes food was his next job but even that could wait for him to get some sleep. The Lieutenant was half out of her shipsuit before she was through the hatch making Jack smile a little watching her butt wiggle. She looked good but all he wanted was sleep as he looked at the bed. Then she turned around and said. “You joining me in the shower big boy.” As everything else on her followed the shipsuit to the deck.
Looking at the bed again Jack could not believe she was not as exhausted as he was. Usually when she was tired, she beat him to bed wanting only sleep even when he was interested. Then he heard the words in his head. ‘I will show that bitch what she can’t give him.’ Suddenly realizing that jealousy was a great aphrodisiac, sleep was suddenly the last thing on his mind even if his body was slow to follow. Though the Lieutenant did not seem to mind as she undressed him and pulled him into the shower rubbing all the right places.
Afterwards, as the Lieutenant laid passed out in his arms, Jack decided he liked this jealousy bit. Being too young to know that there was a fine, bouncing, unseen line between jealousy and betrayal, and then an unstoppable avalanche straight to bitter hate with love long gone never to return. But Jack was still young and stupid.
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The Red Pepper slid out of the cloud. The Battleship hulk they had destroyed a few days before sat a couple hundred miles away where Jack had left it days before. The Hulk still had a few hot spots inside the thick hull from blobs of mettle the plasma had melted. The Two transport hulks floated just outside the clouds edge a few miles away as the Red Pepper slid past them out into the bay at the head of the Maze. The ships tactical showing dozens of corridors taking off from the bay into the maze mostly across one side. A half dozen freeway rivers much bigger than the maze corridors took off from the other side of the bay. There were no signs or beacons or stations to tell anyone which corridor or freeway river went where. If you did not already know where you were going you were guaranteed to get lost. Stories circulated freely in bars on stations throughout The Cloud about lost ships still being found with their crew’s long dead in The Maze from a thousand
years ago.
“The sensors say that most of the weapons turrets have survived Admiral. The inner hull armor around them kept the plasma out of the turrets themselves though they show signs of overheating to about 200 degrees. No one could have survived inside but the equipment and electronics should be just fine with a little clean up.” The Sensor Officer said.
The Weapons Officer Lieutenant Reems smiled from ear to ear. Drooling over the big 24 inch guns.
“No new life signs from the transports Captain. Looks like the other transports got all the survivors. Our sensors confirm that 3/4’s of the cargo in the two hulks are salvageable in spite of all the damage.”
“Thank you Mr. Jenkins. Comm, tell 1721 and 1718 they have clearance to latch onto the hulk and start recovery proceedings. Prepare to launch the shuttles with the salvage crews for the Transports.” Jack looked at the transports that were showing no signs of life. He was hoping that the transports that had picked up the Battleship crew had missed some of the transports survivors. Especially as few of them as they had recovered. He was hoping that they would find and rescue more survivors that had hidden deep inside the hulks but so far the sensors had shown no survivors or hot spots. Just cold hulks.
Jack hit his Comm. “Flight Opps. Any word from the scout bombers yet?” Jack had brought a squadron of bombers along to run a recon mission to find out more about the fleet sitting at the Staging Station for The Rock. An afterthought when Jack had decided to grab the Battleship hulk to salvage what they could. Hopefully before the hulk was discovered telling the Staging Station at the middle of the Maze that led to The Rock, that the enemy was at their gates.
Jack checked the Tactical Screen showing the other 2 DD’s sitting inside the edges of the cloud into the large bay at the head of the Maze to each side of the Red Pepper with fighters running up the various fingers leaving and entering this end of the maze looking for anyone coming or going. The last thing he needed right now was a surprise with two of his DD’s locked to a hulk, a squadron of bombers at least an hour from returning from a reconnaissance mission and salvage crews deep inside the transport hulks even more hours from recovering them if they had to suddenly leave.
Which of course was when shit always hits the fan.
“Admiral, Flight Opps. We have multiple fighter reports of contacts coming down the corridors from the Maze. Our fighters are ducking into the cloud now.” The Tactical screen lit up with icons showing ships coming down a dozen corridors but not what kind of ships. “We will get you more details as they close with the fighters but I don’t think they are Battleships. Contacts are too small. Could be small transports Admiral.”
“Not likely Flight. They are too well-coordinated at this end from to many different lengthen routes. No, this is deliberate and well timed to be just a bunch of transports headed out. You sure of the size?”
“Yes sir. We have one just coming within range of a fighter now. It is a DD Admiral. The rest fit the same profile.” The twelve icons changed to DD’s as another icon appeared in each of the 12 tunnels a ways behind and to the side of the first icon identified as a Destroyer in the classic fighter wingman’s position. The new contacts quickly turned into DD’s
“Very well flight. Have the fighters go dark and cold and wait for the DD’s to pass, then fire a slow recon torpedo down the edge of each corridor. I want to know if anything is following them. Comm. Tell 1721 and 1718 to get that hulk out of here now. We will keep these guys busy. Tactical how long before those DD’s reach the head of the maze and see us?”
“Target E will see us first in about 20 minute at this rate.”
Jack sat there for a couple of minutes and then. “Damn this is too well coordinated to just be a scout mission to check on a Battleship they have not heard from for a while but it is still over a week from when they were scheduled to leave to destroy TF-58. Comm, Tell 1717 and 1715 to move toward the middle of the maze to…” Jack tapped a spot on the tactical screen that would allow the 2 DD’s to intercept any of the DD’s that escaped. “Call it point Zebra and be ready to intercept any runners or assist us. Then get me Admiral Spencer on the new long range Laser Comm.” Jack cringing at his choice to use the super-secret Laser Comm that was anything but a secret with half of the crew.
The Hulk with a pair of DD’s attached to the stern started moving slowly past the Red Pepper.
“Number One, make sure we have a clear shot down the corridor where the first DD will appear and Navigation, I want fast plots to points to shoot down each of the Corridors the DD’s are coming down. Have flight get the salvage shuttles and crews for the transports back aboard as soon as possible.”
The 2 DD’s slipped into the cloud between several corridors coming out of the Maze headed to point Zebra.
“Admiral Spencer on the long range Comm Admiral.”
Jack tapped his L Comm icon and the Admiral appeared on the main screen. “Admiral Spencer, I may have the fleet leaving early. I am sitting at the Head of the Maze and have a DD squadron coming out deployed as possible fleet scouts. If so, they will reach you in less than a week instead of two weeks. You better be ready to get your butt out of there.”
“Are you sure Turner?” The Admiral looked at the tactical Jack was sending him. “I am only seeing scout DD’s. You better hope that is all they are. I just finished massing the Battleships that we are taking but it is going to take another 4 days to mass the Dwarf and finish stripping the hulks. We can leave the hulks but this Dwarf is not going anywhere for at least 90 hours and even then it won’t have enough mass to out run anyone only hours away. Hell, not even my Battleships can out run a fleet of the new Engined Battleships that close. You just pray that those are just scouts looking for the battleship you destroyed.”
“Battleships behind the DD’s Admiral.” Flight yelled from a side screen as the Tactical lit up with a Battleship a half hour behind the first DD that was identified. Followed by dozens more popping up far behind the other DD’s.
“Sorry Admiral Spencer. The fleet is putting out to the cloud.” Taking a deep breath. “I will try to delay them as long as possible but I am not even sure how many DD’s I have that can take them on. I know I have 4 hear but most of the rest are back at New Home. Then I have not had time to train any of/ them outside The Game so they may be slaughtered before they can do much damage.”
Shaking his head Admiral Spencer made a decision he did not like. “Do the best you can Turner. I will get the part of my fleet that can move headed toward New Home and hope the enemy follows me when they arrive. If I can get enough of those gun turrets we have been salvaging planted in my Dwarf’s hull, we just may stand a chance if you can take a few out before they get here. Your exslave engineers tell me my big guns have the minimum of crystal protection and should not burn up with the increased power they have added to them. That should free up enough of the Gas to coat the 16’s we are able to mount so we can double up the Capacitors into single barrels on the turrets like you ordered. That should surprise the shit out of them.”
“Aaa Admiral. You might find it easier to strap pairs of capacitors next to turrets so you have both guns firing from each turret cutting down the number of turrets you have to plant. Should also increase the total number of guns you finally get firing. Your hardest problem is going to be mounting the recovered turrets with the best fields of fire so actually planting them on the hull instead of in the hull would be faster and give them a better field of fire. Though they would be easier to knock out even with added foam armor. Damn. Well it is your decision I just made the suggestion. I have my own problems now. I will try to keep you informed on how we do if I can. Good Luck Admiral. Out.”
“Comm, get me New Home and Pan. Weapons, heat up the God Guns.” Turning to take a look at the hulk making its way up the freeway and the DD’s with their pair of big 16 inch guns strapped under their bellies. “Damn I need those DD’s and the ones from the Ice Planet. Navigator I want you to plot a coarse they can accelerate the h
ulk on that will get it near New Home in a couple of weeks of drifting.”
“Easy Admiral but not possible. As soon as it starts tumbling it could go anywhere and probably not even make it all the way there.”
“Tumbling? Shit I knew that. What was I thinking? No. Yes. Old guns that used to shoot slugs or bullets they called them. I saw a bunch of old Earth Western movies a few years ago about 6 shooters and being able to pick off bad guys from across the desert. How did they keep the slugs from going wild? Weapons how did they do it?”
“Aaaa… A little computer with little jets? No fins. Yes fins would stabilize them in the atmosphere.”
“No fins. I remember seeing the slugs, the bullets. They made a point of showing how primitive they were and they had no fins or thrusters or…”
“Maybe they had little spinning gyroscopes inside of them.” The Weapons Officer was proud of himself.
“That’s it.”
The Weapons officer beamed even more.
“They made the whole bullet spin around. The same effect as a gyroscope without the gyroscope or thrusters. Navigation, get me that course plot and Comms. Get me the DD’s with the hulk.”
“Got the course plot Admiral starting after the first bend in the freeway well short of our secret entrance to the New Home corridor. The hulk will arrive in 6 days. I hope someone is there to grab it or its going to hit the bubble hard. It may even penetrate the bubble or shatter it. You sure you want to do this. But then it could hit something we don’t have charted and pieces of it could go anyplace. Including hitting New Home.”
“Admiral, I have the DD’s on short range and Pan at New Home on the long.”
Battleship Destroyer 2 (Battleship Destoryer) Page 98