“LCmd Jim Bucknell Sir, 30th Marines.”
“Good to meet you Jim. OK, after Jim it will be two pippers and then the rest of you one pippers. I’ll let you sort it out amongst yourselves. Any disputes see the XO.”
“Lucky me” said Rihan and then in a sterner tone. “I don’t like disputes. Remember we have to be back at our stations in less than 30. Hop to it.”
Rihan turned around to find that Dave had already disappeared. She entered the Captain’s cabin to find him lying on a king size bed. He had a big smile on his face and he was patting the bed beside him. She came and sat next to him and was taking in the rest of the room.
“We could just shack up in here?” she said.
“Oh no you don’t, you’ll take the entire wardrobe.”
“Where is it?” She stood up and turned only to realise that it had a walk in robe. “You’ll never fill this.”
He was beside her now. “How the other half live, hey.”
She turned to face him and with a cheeky grin said “We are the other half now.”
“So we are” he said with a smile.
She opened the door to the ensuite. “Wow!”
Dave poked his head in to see he had an actual bathroom replete with a small spa bath. “Bit shabby” he joked.
“Yeah they really skimped on that spa” said Rihan joining in on the fun. “Come on let’s look at my room.”
“My bed’s bigger” said Dave.
“No it’s not” replied Rihan.
“I think so.” She gave him a jab for his troubles. “All right maybe not.”
“Hey I’ve got a walk-in too and a bathroom. Oh they have skimped on my bath said goldilocks. You know Dave I like your room better.”
“Let’s see how Art and Sue are faring” suggested Dave. They walked out into the corridor and poked their heads into the guest rooms. The first was as big as Dave’s; the second was smaller with a single bed. Sue was in the next room. It had only a single bed.
“Where’s Art?” asked Rihan.
“Next door.”
“His room the same?”
“Yeah said Sue.”
“Would you guys like to share my cabin? It’s got a big bed” said Rihan with a smile.
“Are you sure?”
“Don’t worry I’ll get Dave to agree. It won’t be hard.” They both laughed heartily, enough for Art and Dave to come in and find out what’s going on.
“What are you two so happy about?” asked Art.
“Oh nothing” said Sue.
Dave knew something was up and he suspected what it was. “Have you made any allocation decisions I should know about?” he asked Rihan.
Rihan nodded and smiled at him as if to say ‘come on’.
“All right then” he relented.
Rihan turned to Sue with a smug look. “I told you.”
Dave just shook his head.
“What just happened there?” asked Art.
“Don’t worry darling” said Sue “you can take your name off that cabin next door.”
“What?”
Sue put her arm around his shoulder and said “You know for a spy, you don’t know that much.” Art’s shoulder slumped and he had this defeated expression on his face. The others laughed.
Chapter 6. Resolute 1610, 12 May
They were at the stations for the commencement of the trial. Dave was going to take the watch for this maiden launch. He was concerned as anyone would be with the initial launch of a new space ship, let alone a first of class with so many new tech systems.
“We‘re right to go Doctor” he hailed.
“Right Captain. What a moment! Good luck” said Mani. “Open hangar doors.”
Dave was looking at the display screen above the holo display. It was supposed to be showing a camera view from the cockpit. “Nothing’s happening here” said Dave. “Is this camera view working?”
“Please be patient Captain. It’s a big door.”
Sure enough a full minute later a slither of light appeared at the right of the display screen. “OK I see it” advised Dave. It was a full five minutes later before the door was fully open. The sun must have been low in the sky approaching its daily exit. But Dave could make out the salt bush clumps that littered the ground so far below. He had to remind himself just how tall this ship was. ‘No wonder that door took so long to open it must be like moving half a mountainside’ he said to himself.
“We can start the engines now Captain.”
“Roger that” James didn’t wait to be told and engaged the ignition.
“Bit of a disappointment” said Dave.
“No Sir” said James “the engines are fired up just fine according to my panel here.”
“I can’t hear or feel a thing.”
“That’s right Captain. All the sensors are indicating we have ignition.”
“OK” said Dave. “All crew hold tight we are about to taxi out.” Dave didn’t want to take any chances with this first tentative step. He could see the green light on the hangar runway. “Pilot, take her out, slowly.”
‘Now come on my lovely’ said James to himself. He eased on the power to the vertical thrusters. Without the physical sensations he was used to with the Hermes he found it difficult to gauge. He was forced to track his instrumentation.
The specialist standing behind him pointed to the holo display in front of him. He leant forward and inserted his hand into the display and then lifted his upturned hand raising a virtual bar. The craft immediately responded with more vertical thrust and rose to the designated height above ground level.
“Amazing” said James and he tentatively stuck his upturned hand into the display and tried for himself. Only trouble was he was a little heavy handed and the thrusters lifted the craft sharply. Red warning alerts flashed indicating imminent impact with the roof of the cavern. The specialist leant over and lowered the bar slightly. He didn’t flap. ‘Cool as a cucumber’ thought James. He tilted his head and said “Thanks.”
Dave saw the alerts but let James handle it. He let out his breath when they stopped flashing.
“Right” said James “we’re off the deck. Moving forward.”
He engaged the horizontal thrusters but the ship failed to move forward. He turned to the specialist who responded “More!” James gave it more thrust and then some more again. Now the ship started moving forward. James couldn’t see anyone else of the crew but he knew they would all be focussed on him right now.
He glanced at the left and right clearance indicators. They were narrowing dramatically as the craft approached the entrance. “How much clearance do we have?” he asked.
“Enough. Just stay on the glide line. You’re doing fine.”
“If you say so.” James took a big breath in and exhaled.
“More horizontal” said the specialist.
“OK here goes.”
Everyone in the command centre looked on nervously as the entrance got closer and closer. With the camera’s perspective it looked like they would get stuck. Dave reminded himself to relax.
The nose of the big ship passed through the entrance. The light beamed in and James pulled down his visor to shade his eyes. “So far so good” he said and was starting to feel more confident they would get through OK. The specialist patted him on the shoulder.
James glanced at the holo display to check when the tail cleared. It seemed to take forever but he dare not risk increasing the horizontal thrust. He looked out through the cockpit window. The sun’s rays were coming from behind him reinforcing his feeling of coming out of dark into light.
“Entrance cleared” announced James. He and the rest of the ship breathed a collective sigh of relief.
“Captain” said Mani “Please taxi the ship to the launch line.”
“Roger. James.”
“On it.”
“Good now we will close the entrance doors. Be ready to launch in five minutes” said Mani.
Dave came forward to the c
ockpit. “How is it James?” he asked.
“Fine Sir. I’m missing the physical feedback we got with the old Hermes but I’ll get used to it.”
“Good.”
“All sensors are go here Captain. You are clear for launch” said Mani.
“All crew prepare for launch. Take her away James.”
“Right you are Sir. Let’s see what this baby can do.” He steadily ramped up the horizontal thrust and the craft began moving faster and faster. The specialist tapped him on the shoulder and James increased the vertical thrust. The nose rose. More vertical thrust and it rose higher still. Another tap and James increased the horizontal thrusters again. The ground was dropping rapidly away. James cut back on the vertical, till he was relying exclusively on the main horizontal thruster.
He checked his instrumentation. The specialist leaned his hand forward giving him the thumbs up.
“Right everyone” said James “here we go.” The ship accelerated like it was from a standing start. Everyone felt the Gs. It was almost painful. Dave was looking at his own display and saw that all was good. There was virtually no shudder, no vibration and no sense that they were powering on at escape velocity.
The atmosphere was dropping away now and James eased off on the angle of attack. He looked out once more into space albeit through a new cockpit window. He felt so good. He wanted to yell ‘Yeeha’ but knew his Captain wouldn’t approve. Instead he hailed his boss “Where to Sir.”
“Well done James” said a relieved Dave.
“Captain” said Mani “can you please go through the sequence of tests that are appearing on the screen. We will be collecting and analysing the data down here and I will let you know if anything untoward is reported.”
“Understood” said Dave.
It was a further hour before they finished the last of the scheduled tests. Dave breathed a sigh of relief when the active cloaking worked though he knew that they still had to test it coming out of warp.
“Excellent progress Captain” said Mani. “I think we are done. All clear from us. I must say Captain you and your crew have done a marvellous job given the circumstances. Please pass on our appreciation. You have made the whole team here very happy indeed.”
Dave sensed that Mani was feeling emotional and might even cry. He too knew what it was like to commit oneself to a project that has been in the works for years and to finally see it come to fulfilment. “Glad to oblige Doctor. Thanks for such a beautiful ship. Well done to your team.”
“Thank you Captain. God speed.”
Dave turned around to see the faces of his command team. They were all saying ‘what now’. Dave gave a smile and then hailed “James we have to land at Butros Alia in an hour. Let’s see how fast this baby goes. Impress me.”
“My pleasure Sir. Right oh folks hang tight.”
James spent the next half hour stretching the engines and conducting a series of manoeuvres so he could get the hang of the craft’s controls. Dave came forward to see how he was going.
Dave nodded to the specialist who seemed to have relaxed now. James was smiling as he banked the craft yet again. “For a big ship she handles like a dream” said James.
“You happy?”
“Oh yes, very!”
Dave looked at the display and saw that they were only at 80% thrust. “We’re not at full speed?”
The specialist chimed in. “Not recommended for normal use Sir. If the truth be known this is a new power system and we thought it wise to not push it to its extreme till we have done more testing.”
Dave wasn’t happy about that. He hailed engineering.
“Lt Julian Smythe at your service.”
“Lt I know we haven’t met yet but I understand you have some expertise with these new drives.”
“Yes Sir I worked on the initial phase of their development, but that was a while back.”
“OK. At the moment I understand we are only at 80% capacity. I want to stretch it out to full capacity. Do you have a problem with that?”
“No Sir, not all” said Julian in a very English accent. “This clodhopper here and I have been arguing about this for the last fifteen minutes.”
“You mean the specialist?”
“So called Sir. Look, if I were you Sir, I would not take this ship into battle with one arm tied behind its back. I told this fellow that we are only one week away from action but he doesn’t seem to get it.”
“Do we have auxiliary engines on this ship Lt?”
“Indeed Sir. My very point. If worst comes to worst right now we just use them to get us back down. Better that now than in the middle of a battle with a rogan missile headed up our arse.”
Dave was smiling. He liked this guy already. “Thank you Julian. I look forward to meeting you in person.”
“Likewise Sir.”
“James ramp it up to max” ordered Dave. “Let’s see what it can do.”
The specialist in the cockpit was going to object but thought better of it. James saw him back off. “You got it” said James.
At 85% they passed the Hermes max speed, previously the fastest ship class in the Fleet. At 95% they hurtled along for ten minutes without any alerts firing. Finally he let out the full throttle and couldn’t hold back any longer. He let out a loud “Yeeha” and was grinning like a Cheshire cat.
After another ten minutes Dave said “OK James I think that will do. Ease it back and head for this waypoint, wait for a handshake and follow their Control’s instructions.”
“Roger that Sir and thanks” said James. He was still smiling.
Chapter 7. Butros Alia 1830, 12 May
They landed with the setting sun in the middle of the desert about 150kms from Tumos. Like the Deathly Hollows facility this one was built into a ridge. But no large hangar door opened for them. The Resolute was required to stay out on the tarmac.
A fleet of trucks arrived and began loading the stores they would need. Val was kept very busy indeed. Her new offsider, now Cpl Tracy Gordon, was a keen assistant.
Dave came over to the trucks to find Val but found Tracy. “Cpl Gordon no less” said Dave.
“Yes Sir what can I do for you.”
“Where’s your boss?”
“Well Sir she’s only my boss on duty. We’re equal partners otherwise.”
“Of course, of course” said Dave with a smile. “Did you enjoy the flight?”
“Very much so. Still getting used to things military, but I’m a quick learner.”
“So I have been told. So I have been told” and Dave gave her a smile as he spied Val coming over to them, walking smartly with her usual swagger.
“Sir?” said Val.
“The rest of the crew have been allowed to mess here. But I need you to stay on top of this replenishment. I’ll send some food out to you and your team.”
“No worries Sir. When do we get to see these droids?”
“They’ll be running a demo after dinner. Hopefully you will be through by then.”
“I’ll make sure of it Sir.”
“You know you’ve changed since Bane Metal and Fulmar.” Val nodded. “Quite the warrior now, aren’t you?”
“Yeah it was a nice change from shifting crates. But the real reason for the change is standing right here” and she put her arm around Tracy’s shoulders. The two of them smiled at Dave and he smiled back.
“OK I better organise your meals.”
Fifteen minutes later he sat down next to Brennon in the facility cafeteria.
“I told you our paths would cross again” said Brennon.
“You see that woman there” said Dave as he looked at Aubrey “she reckons you’re a dark horse. I think she’s right.”
Aubrey looked a bit embarrassed.
Brennon looked at Aubrey and smiled. “You may be right. How do you put up working for this old horse?”
Aubrey laughed but then caught Dave’s eye and said “Sorry Sir.” But then she cheekily added “Well you’re not that old!�
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“Enough of the old bit thanks” said Dave.
Rihan sat down to join them with her plate in hand. “They ganging up on you again Dave?”
“It would seem so” said a resigned Dave.
Rihan turned to Brennon and said “You are a dark horse aren’t you?” and everyone else laughed.
Chase came over, having finished his meal quickly. “Are we staying the night here or what?”
“Yes” replied Dave.
Chase gave an exasperated expression and looked at the others for support. He got none. “Oh come on I just want to know.”
“We’ll be staying on board” said Rihan. “The Resolute stays on the tarmac till the morning.”
“Thank you Maam” said Chase and affected a bow with a sweep of his hand.
“Since you are up Chase” said Rihan “can you please check that Val and her team got fed.”
“Certainly.” He headed back out hailing Val. At the door to the cafeteria he turned, caught Rihan’s eye and gave her the thumbs up.
Art and Sue came over carrying their plates and stopped next to Rihan. “Thank you for the cabin” said Art. “You do realise she” pointing to Sue with his fork “makes a lot of noise” and he gave a wink.
“So I heard from a Commodore no less” replied Rihan and Dave laughed.
“I can still see Pious outside your cabin on the Hermes” said Dave “and you with your jaw dropped after being sprung with Sue. Priceless!”
“Well if we’re going down memory lane” said Art “Who can forget the central crumple zone?” They all broke out laughing.
Chapter 8. Butros Alia 2100, 12 May
“Amazing” said Chase as they filed out of their briefing on the droids.
“The AI that controls them is impressive” said Ivan “but don’t you feel uncomfortable about using machines for close quarter fighting?”
Insurrection: Book 3 of Warner's World Page 7