Earth Ship Protectress: Book Two in the Freddy Anderson Chronicles

by John Ricks

  The admiral said, “Freddy, we were hoping to have you rename the destroyer to Enterprise.”

  “Not going to happen, Admiral. I’m saving that name for my first research-class aircraft carrier. Any other suggestions?”

  I watched his eyebrows go up, and interest drifted across his face in what I would consider to be a “research class aircraft carrier,” but he put that aside and said, “We also thought that the name Protectress would be good. ‘Destroyer’ sounds so bad to the public.”

  “What do you think, Marian? Would you like to be first navigator on the USS Protectress?”

  “I’d like that, Freddy. I’d like that very much.”

  “Okay, then, the Protectress it is.”

  The admiral said, “Not ‘USS,’ Freddy. ‘ES’—for Earth ship.”

  I looked over at Colleen and said, “Now, I wonder who came up with that idea?”

  She blushed, and everyone laughed.

  “Captain, there is a person here who has three degrees in engineering.”

  “Who?” the captain asked. “I know some of my team have three degrees each, and one has four, but none of the girls has three engineering degrees that I’m aware of.”

  I smiled and said, “She left it off her enlistment forms, Captain. I would bet she was hiding from having to be an officer because she really wanted to be a SEAL. I think we could change her mind if there was a position open, and we asked her to fill it. Chief engineer of the fleet and the ES Protectress—what a job that will be. We may start calling her Scotty. What do you think”—I turned my head slowly until I could look right into her eyes—“Chief Engineering Officer of the Fleet Patricia Henderson?”

  She looked at me and started crying tears of happiness. She got up, came around the table, and picked me up.

  I thought her hug was going to crush me. “Hey, you’re breaking my bones, you know.”

  She loosened up but didn’t let go. Finally, she held me out at arm’s length and said, “Thank you. But the first person to call me Scotty will lose teeth.”

  The captain said, “Then it’s settled, Chief Engineering Officer of the Fleet. Your job is to learn everything you can without slowing Freddy down.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  I added, “And to teach the others, because I expect all of you to come back with me and help me with the other ships and bases I’m building. I don’t like changing personnel. Captain, after this project is completed, let’s find a way to bring in some of the girls’ families. I would feel better if they were closer. We can’t expect them to never go home, never fall in love, or never have children of their own.”

  “We’ll start planning for it. I’m sure Admiral Bates can find housing for us.”

  “Great! You know, this dish is wonderful.” It was, but I was purposely changing the subject.

  Cooky said, “You really like it, Freddy?”

  “Yes. Can we have this one in the replicator?”

  She smiled. “I’ll get on it. I will also program some high-fat, high-carb meals.”

  I smiled. “Thanks.”

  “Not a problem. I expect to be the chief chef on the moon or Mars someday.”

  I smiled, “That’s a good possibility. No matter how good the food is in the replicators, people will want freshly prepared meals. I could set you up with the first restaurant on the moon. Or better yet, you could be my personal chef and go wherever I go.”

  “Going where you go is a little too dangerous for me, but the first restaurant on the moon would be a fabulous idea.”

  “Well, you’ll already be famous.”

  She looked at me and asked, “Why is that?”

  “An entire fleet will be eating your recipes for years to come. The food programmed into the replicators will become one of two things.”

  Her eyes widened, and she said, “Famous or infamous, right?”

  “Quite right, Cooky. Twenty-five recipes in only a few short hours—that’s amazing.”

  “I think I’ll work a little harder on the recipes.”

  “I’d suggest tasting the dishes yourself and then having others taste them. It’s going to be a matter of eating each dish over and over and still enjoying it or having an extremely large menu so that no one gets bored with it. A big challenge, isn’t it?”

  “Yes, and I should be charging you extra.”

  “That’s why I’m willing to put you into the first restaurant on the moon. You’re doing us this favor. Whether you’re successful or not is up to you. I doubt that people will want to flock to your restaurant if the food they eat on the way in the shuttles is second-rate or gives them intestinal problems, but we know that won’t happen, will it?”

  She looked at me in total fear for her career.

  “You don’t get a chance like this twice in life, Cooky. You’re a great cook. You make the comfort food that people like to eat every day. You’re going to do great. I’m just letting you know your options so that you can make informed choices. You’re in the same situation that Henry and Dorothy are. I don’t know if they will be going with us or not. That’s up to the captain. I do know that the moon is going to need people with their qualities. So is the research ship that takes us to Mars and all the new planets.”

  The captain interjected, “Stick with us, ladies and gentlemen, and we’ll make you famous.”

  Everyone laughed, but then Lieutenant Bergman said, “Or dead.”

  Gray asked, “Is their food compatible with our metabolism.”

  I said, “I hope so. We could use some changes.”

  Little Yellows giggled.

  Green said, “Yes.”

  Gray smiled. “Great. Work on that replicator. My troops are bored with their rations.”

  Blue said, “The entire fleet is bored with the rations.”

  Yellows said, “Perhaps we should go back and capture this Cooky person.”

  Gray laughed. “Perhaps. Green, continue.”

  Chapter 26

  Being Human

  I looked at Lieutenant Bergman with concern. “You seem to have some issues. If so, I want to know what they are.”

  “I’m sorry, Dr. Anderson. We’ve been talking about what you’re doing. The job you’ve done is nothing short of fantastic, but we think you’re going too fast. People aren’t trained, nothing’s been tested, this is all ‘ifs’—if this works, and if we can do this, and if we get this. Right now, we’ve seen several faults in the thinking you have about space travel.”

  “Really? How interesting.”

  Denise said, “Oh no.”

  I looked at her and put my finger to my lips, cutting her off. “Lieutenant Bergman, I agree that I am going too fast, but I do not have a lot of choice, as the meteor is not slowing down. In your opinion, what do I have incorrect? If it could jeopardize the mission in any way, then we really need to know about it.”

  “I don’t think I should say anything. It’s not my place.”

  I raised my voice a little to get my point across as I addressed the entire group. “If anyone here has any ideas or thinks that something is not correct, then you have the right—in fact, is it your moral obligation—to speak up. If you do not speak, and it turns out that you were right, and people die because you did not have the guts to speak now, even though you may possibly be wrong, then you are jeopardizing this mission, the people involved in it, and possibly the entire human race. I want everyone’s input, and I don’t want you to hold back just because you’re afraid of subjecting yourself to a little ridicule.” I waited for their reaction, but everyone just stared at me in silence. Sighing heavily, I said, “Shop?”

  “Yes, Freddy?”

  “How many changes have I made due to input from the team or other sources?”

  “One thousand six hundred eighty-one.”

  “Thank you.”
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br />   I looked at Lieutenant Bergman and lowered my voice. “I may be a child, but I’m not such a fool as to think that I know everything. Let’s retire to the living room and listen to these issues that your group has, shall we?” I stood up, and so did everyone else. Dinner was about over anyway.

  The captain said, “Cooky, we’ll have dessert in the living room.”

  Cooky then looked at me and said, “That bread pudding I promised you.” When I smacked my lips in anticipation, she laughed and whispered, “Listen to everything first, and think about your response. I don’t want you to scare them away. They’re doing us a lot of good.”

  I whispered back, “Gotcha.” I looked at the lieutenant and asked, “Will it make things easier if you have a board to write on?”

  “Yes, it would, thanks.”

  “Home?”

  “Yes, Freddy.”

  “Please open and energize the teaching board. Thank you.”

  On the wall a painting slid up so quickly that it startled the admiral and others. The team moved the small card table that was in front of the wall, and everyone sat down.

  “I have several things to discuss,” said Lieutenant Bergman. “First, we think your vision of what we will see when we travel faster than light is incorrect. All of our training indicates that it will be dark, not a blinding light, as your trainer suggests. If we go over the math, you can see …”

  He started to turn to the board, but I stopped him. “Lieutenant, do you mind if I show you something before you start working on your math? I think I can settle this issue fairly quickly.”

  “Please.” He motioned for me to continue.

  “Home?”

  “Yes, Freddy?”

  “Contact Shop and have her put onto this training board the view from the probes I sent off. Just one will do.”

  Instantly, several probes appeared on the screen, and then some disappeared. “Home, pause screen.” The image stopped. “This is one of my probes. What you’re seeing are the cameras and scanners documenting everything that the probe sees. Home, please remove the scanner views, and show the camera side and back views as separate blocks, interposed on the front view.” The screens changed. “Note on the bottom screen that you can see the earth and twenty side views. Home, cut the side views to just four at ninety degrees from each other.” The screen uncluttered, and now five views were interposed on the bottom of the front view. “Lieutenant, the probe saw the other probes disappear as they started traveling at faster than the speed of light. This one is just about to take off. Home, please resume.”

  The screen showed several other probes disappear, and then the screen went white, and the noise that was in the background increased tremendously. The back screen went as black as night, and the side screens showed nearly normal scenes. The probe shot past the moon. “Home, pause screen.” I turned to Lieutenant Bergman. “You can see, from something that is actually traveling faster than the speed of light, that it is collecting all light, sound, and any other energy source as it moves forward. They bombard the front of the ship like it is moving through an ocean. In the rear view, it is totally dark, as light and other energies cannot catch up with the probe. The little flicker you catch every once in a while on the rear screen is an energy that is faster than the probe. I have not isolated that yet, but the army has all the information to do so. As you can see, the side views are fairly normal. In actuality, they are somewhat distorted, slightly stretched. The probes have the ability to analyze and adjust the input, but the light hits the sides almost at normal speed. The reason that the picture looks a little fuzzy is that the probe is traveling so fast that the friction from the light hitting the front of the probe’s shields is affecting the side pictures. Any questions?”

  “No, sir.”

  “Home, discontinue. Thank you.”

  “You’re welcome, Freddy.”

  “Did that satisfy your confusion on that issue, Lieutenant?” I asked.

  “Yes.”

  “Next issue, please.”

  The lieutenant was still staring at the blank screen. Captain James roused him by clearing her throat.

  “Um, yes,” the lieutenant said, “the next issue. We are having a hard time using your direction finder—the equipment that you use to plot a course. Sometimes it comes out wrong, and we have not been able to figure out why.”

  “Shop?”

  “Yes, Freddy?”

  “Please look back at the scenario in question.”

  “Working, Freddy.”

  A picture came up showing the plotting they were doing to make the trip to the nearest star. I watched with interest. They did nothing wrong. Someone said, “Engage.” The ship started flying at mach seven. Shop said, “Speeding up the view to the end.” They were nowhere near the system to which they plotted.

  “Shop, did you investigate this?”

  “Yes, Freddy. I found that the correct plot never gets us to the right place. I have checked the programming, and I could not see an issue.”

  “Place the math for long-distance plotting on the board and scroll at twenty-five.”

  Math showed up on the board and changed screens at twenty-five shots per minute. While I was watching, Lieutenant Bergman leaned over and asked Susan, “How can he see anything, let alone find a problem at this pace?”

  She whispered back, “We don’t know. We simply don’t know.”

  “Stop!” I yelled. “Go back three screens.” The image changed. “Whoops, I made a simple mistake. Shop, change the …” I started talking pure math to the computer. I talked the math, and the programming changed. It took about ten minutes. Meanwhile, the lieutenant sat down.

  The captain said, “Shall we stop him?”

  Dr. Landers said, “No, no, let him finish. This is fascinating. I have never in my entire life seen someone who could go through math like that. You do realize that he is having a conversation with the shop computer in pure physics. I doubt that any other person could do this at one-hundredth the speed. Also, he’s using math techniques that are completely new. I can’t understand much at this speed, and I’m considered one of the top mathematicians in the world. What I am getting is that some of the theorems we use are incorrect, and he has replaced them with laws that are correct.”

  Susan got up from her seat and picked up two books. She handed them to Dr. Landers, who looked at the covers and read out loud, “Thoughts on Common Mistakes in Mathematical Beliefs and Math and Laws as God Set Them.” He thumbed through them. When he looked up, it was with eyes wide open, as if they were about to pop out. Several of the girls laughed. “How long have you had access to these?” he asked.

  Marian said, “About two months now. I received them as a birthday present after I complained to Freddy that I could not figure out what I was doing wrong with some work he asked me to do. They’re first editions. Actually, they’re probably the only editions.”

  “Do you understand the importance of what’s in these books?”

  “Yes, I do, and Freddy made sure I understood every detail of what’s in those books. Patricia and I both can nearly quote them from memory. I haven’t had a problem with any project he’s put me on since.”

  Colleen added, “When I saw Math and Laws as God Set Them, I asked him why that title. You know what he said? He said, ‘Let’s give credit to who wrote it. I was just the scribe.’”

  Dr. Landers held the books to his chest. “Do you think he was kidding?”

  “Freddy never jokes about work, and this was work. He said that God gave him the information to help with his projects. Looking at what he’s accomplished, I can more easily believe that he accomplished all that with the help of God than I can believe that a child did it on his own.”

  Dr. Landers said, “That makes this holy scripture and this project a holy mission.” He looked at Freddy with renewed respect.

/>   “Dr. Landers,” said Marian, “you can read and copy anything you want from those books, but they are mine, and they don’t leave this house. Freddy wrote them by hand—they’re in his handwriting—and I believe that someday they will be worth more than I can ever know.”

  “Marian.” Dr. Landers choked up and seemed at a loss for words. “Thank you.”

  “You’re welcome, Doctor.”

  I said, “There. That should do it,” They all looked at me. “Shop, run the programs again, and see what they do.”

  “Running. Completed. That has corrected the problem. I will remove it from your to-do list.”

  “Thank you. I am so sorry, Lieutenant. I apologize to you and the team. I made a very critical error on page 205 that caused the math to be off all the way through page 912. I thought I’d tested that software, but I guess I only tested the short flight information that is installed on the first 150 pages. I am indebted to you, Lieutenant Bergman. Thank you.”

  He smiled. “Not a problem. Now … the third and last issue is somewhat of a more personal one. It’s the reason that we’re stuck on scenario fifty.”

  I smiled. “Go on.”

  “We all drop dead with no clue as to why. We have tried to figure out the reason, but I’m sorry to say we’re stuck.”

  I looked puzzled. “That shouldn’t happen. Let’s go out to the trainer and find out why.”

  At the trainer, I said, “Let’s man the systems just like you’ve been doing.” They did, and I watched as they ran through the scenario. At one point the controls stopped working for them or slowed down a lot, and then they all died. I went over to the science officer and asked, “See this? What do you think it means?”

  “Nitrogen level?” she asked. “I guess it means that the nitrogen level in the weapon systems is reaching critical.”

  “Why do you think it applies to the weapons?”

  “This is the first scenario in which we’ve used the weapons this heavily, and it’s the first time that indicator has moved up.”

  “Computer.”