Tramp Wars: The Enemy

by Larry Roberts

  Getting control of himself as he took a deep breath, Tom turned to Mark. “That was plan A? What’s plan B? Kidnapping the little shit heads?”

  “Mm. Well now I had not thought of that but it sounds like a good idea to me.” Thinking for a second. “Naw; it would just be easier to shoot them but then we would have to clean up the mess.”

  Jolene leaned forward. "What you too plotting about now?" Looking at both their innocent expressions as they glanced back at her. She knew something was up but she was too far back to hear them but she was far enough back to hear the bitch complaining to everyone that would listen, that Dispatch had refused to replace Mark. Jolene smiled. They were going to the zoo. What could they do to screw that up now? She knew that was a stupid question as soon as she asked herself. Mark would figure out something.

  Mark studied the ship they were just passing for something to do and get his mind off of burning hulks and spoiled plans. It looked like a big flat pancake about a thousand feet across and a hundred feet tall. The proverbial saucer fitting the gravity field and shield shape from a large single central coil that was Cheap and reliable but massive and very old. Designers had stopped using saucers half a millennium before when manufacturing smaller lighter coils became cheap enough to be mass produced, for ships that is. Big ramps led directly up into what looked like two huge 3 story high cargo decks below the large windowed passenger deck running completely around the ship making it fast and easy to load. Not needing any of the gantry lifts or airtrucks that the tall ships needed. While using cheap wheeled trucks to drive the cargo containers onto the ship. A very useful attribute for landing on the backward Outback planets they were about to head for. Not to mention the wide landing gear stance with wide foot pads negating the worry about having to land on a class A pad a hundred feet thick to support 80,000 gross ton ships like the Star Queen on its narrow ass landing legs.

  The terror of every landing; dropping a leg and tumbling the ship onto its side. He had even seen the wreck of a ship that had tumbled years before. Making him sick at the thought of how many of the crew that must have been killed and never launched again.

  But then trying to push that disk through space (flat side up for the gravity coils to resist acceleration) at several hundred times the speed of light was asking for trouble as well. You might survive a tall ship tumbling but even if the saucer survived a hit by a grain of sand getting through their shields at several hundred times the speed of light; (if your engines were taken out and you could not make repairs) you would be stuck to starve and freeze to death overtime with no hope of rescue. Even if it took 30 or 40 years as the ship slowed passing close enough to almost touch stars but with no way to stop the ships plunge through space as grains of dust and atoms continued to tear at the ship over the years and the crew either committed suicide or reverted to cannibalism or both if they simply did not freeze to death. The term was called out of range. In truth it was just damn shit out of luck and flat saucer ships had the worst fricking luck.

  Looking beyond the flying saucer he noticed the one hull shape he truly hated, but then there seemed to be a lot of the ball ships that he could see scattered across the port. Sure they looked like good light cargo carrying ships as the ball design offered the lightest hull design for the volume but then you still had to push the wide ship through space along with it being almost impossible to load the cargo decks from the outside and required large elevators and ramps inside the core that took up a lot of space and slowed loading considerably since you could not get at most of the decks with a gantry not to mention the fact that of all the wasted space from the multi curved hull in a square cargo boxed universe. Which is why most ball ships started out as passenger cruise ships around the closely spaced inner galaxy star systems (less than a light year apart) and were bought cheap by tramps and converted to carry cargo simply because they were so damn cheap.

  The bus drummed by a strange looking ball and Mark suddenly took notice. Unlike all the other ball ships with view parts around most of the curved hull for cabins taking up the wasted space around the square cargo holds. This one’s hull was perfectly smooth and almost shinny around the entire ball except the stern engine ring sitting on the ground with large loading docks and hatches and a cap on top or bow showing a couple of decks with ports on the sides forming a short hat with a domed nose. As it disappeared behind them, Mark suddenly realized why it looked so strange and then tried to get up enough courage to turn around to go back for a few minutes and check it out for a closer look before going on. He had read about that type of new ball ship in a magazine a few years before. But he could not believe one was sitting in the port.

  Their where no outside hull ports around the ball because the inner surface of the ball was lined with gravity coils so the entire inner hull made up the cargo deck. The cargo was driven on board threw the lower hatch and right up around the inside and stacked on multiple decks around the hull leaving most of the cargo hanging on the sides and even upside down in relation to the planetary gravity and thrust. Marveling at the amount of power and fuel that would take, Mark continued to fly straight ahead wishing he had the guts to take a closer look since that may just be one of the last things he ever saw if he could just figure out a way to make his appointment.

  No; most of the ships at the port where narrow and tall, making it possible to make the most speed with the smallest field coils and the least amount of power providing a shield to protect the ship as it sped through the not quite total vacuum down the Transport Lanes between the stars. Landing and loading had to come 3rd or even 5th when designing a safe, reasonably fast and efficient star transport.

  No; ball ships where just big stupid pains while living on a flying saucer would have been cool. But they needed to stay with the tall ships and the taller the better for speed but then you still had to carry cargo or it was a waste of time.

  The tall skinny ship they were just approaching was a good example of way to thin but then he realized that it was a military battle ship that suddenly got a lot of Mark’s attention as he forgot about the solid ball behind them. At what he guessed was some 2,500 to 3,000feet tall and a hull only a couple hundred feet in diameter if not less until the hull got down almost to the 6 wings/landing legs, cooling. The Battleship looked fast just sitting there in the military section of the port were the only pits large enough and thick enough to hold their weight. Then he noticed the massive gun pods on the wing/fins. Each of the 6 landing cooling support fins around the stern had what Mark guessed was at least a 48 inch huge planetary defense plasma cannon sticking up a good thousand feet from the gun room pods attached to the fins half way out from the hull with short landing legs reaching down to the pit .

  What Mark had read, (as he kept up on what had been called the English/Russian Crossings War, only one of a half dozen wars broken out around the Empires rim in the last decade) was the English answer to the Rushky’s miles long battle stations that threatened to decimate any planet they orbited while providing guaranties that the English could never invade a planet they guarded. Though the huge slow Russian Mega Battleship Stations could not keep the systems from being blockaded into submission (unless they could feed themselves) or its critical war supplies from reaching the Ruskies central production worlds.

  The English had finely came up in the last months of the war with the ship he was just looking at as an answer that came too late to destroy even one of the big Mega Battleship Stations though the first of the class built was reported to have badly damaged one as it left a planet behind before almost being destroyed itself in the one on one fight with the enemy monster ten times its size. Mark could still not believe the Russians had simply given up when a huge English fleet materialized over the Russians Capital world. But then he could not understand how a huge English fleet had managed to get that deep into the Russian State. Sure he had heard about a small fleet raiding the Russian planets deep behind the front lines for a couple of years toward the end of the war but
it sounded more like a few ships sent scurrying around desperately hiding and making pin prick attacks for propaganda reasons and not an all-out campaign complete with 4 Battle Starbases. But then the English were probably trying to keep the lid on what they were doing and the Russians probably did not want to admit more than what they had too until it was too late. But that still did not explain how the English had gotten such a huge fleet so deep inside the Russian state or why the Russians had sent their home fleet on a while goose chase leaving their home system completely defenseless except for a half dozen of the Mega Battleships that surrendered even faster than the government. But then Mark had been reading and seeing video’s trying to answer those questions for a year with the English not even offering a hint of how. Mark suddenly wondering if maybe a squadron of Battlecruisers had been there with the fleet. It would have filled in a lot of the blanks but then why wouldn’t the English have simply said that.

  Now, Mark could not believe he was actually getting to see one up close. Then he noticed that the pit decks where dropping, opening the exhaust duct tunnels for launch. Circling back around without thinking he took a closer look and hoped that he could watch the launch but traffic control was immediately on the horn demanding what his intentions where.

  “This is Star Queen Bus 2. Could you give me an ET to L on the Battleship please?”

  “Star Queen Bus 2; they are Battlecruisers and are launching after you leave the area. Return to your directed course immediately please.”

  Mark knew that please wasn’t anything but an order, turned back to resume his coarse he could not help noticing that large Megatrucks and boats where still coming and going from the ship at high speed making the pit area look like a bee hive of activity. Not normal for a ship supposedly ready to launch before the pit decks where dropped. Once back on coarse Mark noticed that there was another battle cruiser in the next pit that looked just as busy and then another and then a whole squadron of 12 was in sight. From what he could see in most of them the pit decks where all opening up.

  His heart started pounding trying to get out of his chest... “God Star Tom. These bastards are getting ready for an emergency short notice fleet launch.” He could see a dozen of the huge battleships swarming with hurried preparations as equipment in the pits seemed to be abandoned as crews dragged others towered the tunnel exits. He watched one big piece of equipment along with a hut slide down to fall into a pit as a section of yards thick deck grate dropped out from under it. The engines in most of the pits started firing short bursts of plasma into the pits warming up.

  Wanting to scream in exasperation, the bus left the port behind as Mark changed course to head for the city. “God Star I would have loved to see that launch. How would you like one of those to split the crew into Tom?” Mark smiled at Tom as he changed the channel for City Traffic Control Center and then pressed the transmit button. The bus started climbing and gaining speed. Calling C.T.C.C. Mark confirmed his flight plan to fly past the Central Park water fall on their way to the zoo. As close as they would allow. Something the Control Center was happy to do since the river’s 2 mile tall falls was a major tourist attraction and something they did thousands of times a day. Even advertising that all were welcome. Which was how Mark had found out about it.

  Mark got a glint in his eyes thinking of what Mrs. Hastings reaction would be looking up at the falls after being used to the wide open voids of space and the horizon flat space ports they usually visited. Remembering the time they landed the ship in a narrow miles deep canyon rift on a small planetoid and several people including Mrs. Hasting came unglued during dinner and putting up a noisy screaming stink. Looking out the ships mess deck windows you could only see shear vertical cliffs reaching up as far as the eye could see. Mrs. Hastings was afraid that the tall cliffs would fall down on the ship and her and she told everyone in ear shot what she felt and thought about the Captain and crew. She finally had to be led away and given a sedative to Mark’s delight.

  Turning back to Tom and glancing around at Jolene. “What do you think? Should we just dump them off and hope they don’t miss us. Hope we make it back in time to pick them up and not notice if I really am blind.” Looking at Tom smiling. “That’s if I am not truly dead. In either case I hope they don’t notice you flying instead of me. That is if I decide to even go back to the ship. If I am blind or even dead, just dump me in the nearest gutter. I just hope my parents understand and don’t miss me to much though I feel sorry for Chet. He won’t have anyone to kill when he gets back."

  "What?" Jolleen said as she jumped out of her seat and leaned into the Cockpit. "What the hell are you talking about? You said you were not getting that stupid implant." Getting a disgusting tone to her voice. "I would never have come along if I knew you were still planning on getting your eyes cut out."

  "Well getting beat up again and then spending the last wonderful half hour getting insulted kind of changed my mind sweetheart." Mark said as he looked back at her smiling. Then shaking his head sadly. "But you don't need to worry. I can't figure out how to make the appointment any way. Unless we just leave from the Zoo after we drop off the kids."

  "You do know that as soon as we leave the Zoo. The computer will report the Bus off mission, the Shore Patrol will hunt us down before we can get to your Doctor's and we will be lucky to get out of detention in a year and neither of us will ever fly again. Both our second jobs will be garbage tech's cleaning out the hydroponic shit tanks. If they don’t make them our only."

  They continued to talk about reasons why he should not go to the doctor's appointment. Jolene again going over the many possibilities of him dying if he did ignore all the other bad things that could go wrong in the studies she had read about.

  .

  Chapter 5 Sight

  Mark dropped the bus down onto the zoo’s landing park next to a dozen other busses that were a lot better looking and at least a hundred years newer. The faster chartered busses (not taking the detour close past the falls because it cost more) had already finished unloading their children forcing Mark to land some ways away from the other busses across the lot to keep from landing on one of the Star Queens school kids who thought the excursion included running races all over the parking lot now that they were away from the confines of the ship and free to run in the vast wild while they waited to enter the Zoo. The parking lot looked like a heard of crazy animals running around it. He could not believe all the energy the kids had. Mark taxied across the lot taking his time to let the teachers round up the kids as he approached the unloading zone. Finely parked, the kids left the bus and Mark (with Jolene trying to shush the kids’ comments while the teachers encouraged them adding their own) getting more disgusted by the minute as he could not help but over hear their taunts.

  “Hey the four eyed monkey had to land a mile away because he could not see where to land. Well at least he found the zoo. Wow; I am impressed.”

  “That just proves anyone can fly a stupid bus. I am going to be the ship's pilot when I grow up.” Chimed in another.

  “Hey this isn’t the zoo. The port hole head idiot got lost. It looks just like a parking lot to me.”

  “Turn around moron.” Said another.

  “Yes, we would have been here an hour ago if the glass eyed stupido had not gotten lost over the city and almost crashed us into that water fall.”

  One kid fell to the ground kissing it. “I am alive! I can’t believe I’m alive.” Then ran off laughing with his friends.

  Mark had loved Mrs. Hastings reaction to the waterfall except her screaming as she panicked, started having a bad effect on some of the kids as some started getting frightened as well with several crying instead of enjoying the beauty of it all.

  The little girl Janet came up and hugged Mark. “I loved the water fall. It was so spaced. I could have spent all day looking at it. Can we go by it again on the way home?”

  Mrs. Hastings came up to the cockpit as Jolene again blocked her from actually getting
in but reached across to grab the little girl Janet. “You young lady get away from that pervert. Don’t ever touch a stranger let alone that creep again like that. Get off the bus with the rest of the children.” Jerking her away from Mark, she pushed the little girl down the steps making her almost fall as she skipped several steps to land hard on her feet. “I am calling the Captain and declaring an emergency to have you replaced as our bus pilot. I don’t appreciate your little theatric jokes and you are the worst pilot I have ever ridden with. You could have killed us getting so close to the falls.”

  “Hey! I stayed in the corridor assigned to me.” Mark said with a smile, since he had gotten as close to the falls as his assigned corridor had allowed. The teacher turned for the stairs with a harrumph. “Darn Jolene, Tom.” Mark leaned around smiling as he watched the teacher start down the stairs. “Do you think we went a little far with these pore misunderstood politically correct bigots?”

  Hearing Mark, the teacher turned around on the bottom step and starred.

  “No. Not at all Mark.” said his friend Tom without looking around as he ran system and fan checks on the screen in front of him. “After all we didn’t start it, they did. No. We did not do anything like the elevator last month. Now that was over doing it a lot."

  Jolene joined in. "Oh and then there was the church folk a few years ago. The holy rollers. God Star they performed miracles with the touching of hands. Touched by Godstar. Praise Godstar. We had them going for weeks. They still think they saved you from going completely blind.” They all started laughing.