They had already sealed the ruptures to the deck beneath the absent bridge and had almost finished repairs to the hull’s armor. It was vulnerable along that bridge rupture, but its hull could be sealed, the engines could be powered up as well as being able to power the remaining turrets.
“How many men do we have working on this?”
“Only about twenty men, all of which are volunteers, along with ten droids and the two repair robots we brought along from the Wolf.”
Repair droids were more advanced than the older robots. They had the ability to recognize and repair damage that was not programmed for them to perform.
“Any ideas about the missing upper level?”
The young Italian’s smile grew as he ran a hand through his dark curly hair.
“Several, we could go back to one of those battle sites and salvage a bridge section from a trashed Karduan Destroyer Escort.”
Mike cut him off before his next idea poured out.
“Could that work?”
“Sure, their power systems are basically based on Kazad technology just like ours are. If not, we could still use the superstructure and hull. We’d just have to replace all the hardware,” he said, making it all sound simple.
He let out a sigh because he quickly realized that the idea was definitely out, as he didn’t want to back track without more firepower.
“What about that fragged DE we have down in bay four?”
Cappilo shook his head, “No, I thought of that, but it’s too crushed. Maybe we could use some of its hull armor or even sections of its superstructure and bow, but the bridge area is toast.”
“OK what else could we do?”
“We could build one from scratch. We have the tools and materials onboard. It would take time, but it’s doable.” He said making it sound as if that should be the last option.
The senior lieutenant knew that he had another idea and was just holding it back until he had ruled out the other two.
“All right, what’s behind door number three?”
“We don’t put a bridge on at all,” he revealed, as his brown eyes grew broad with excitement. “Instead we armor over the upper deck and either load it up with weapons turrets or …” he said trailing off.
“Or?”
Cappilo looked around like some enemy agent might over hear and steal his idea.
“We could make a mini-particle spinal cannon or even a series of multiple torpedo launchers.”
Collins’ right eyebrow rose as he wondered if his friend had gotten enough sleep lately.
“Do you have a palm pad with that plan?”
“No, but I’m working on it,” he said, touching his index finger to his temple.
“Right, get back to me when you have it all worked out Dr. Frankenstein,” Mike replied, “In the meantime, armor over the exposed upper deck’s hull. Only volunteers and nobody over does it. Remember the Alamo has top priority.”
“No problem, do you want to see my other pet project?” he asked, pointing to the far end of the repair deck.
Mike had to wonder how his friend did it, they’d only had control of the Mammoth for about thirty hours, but he already had three different projects going. Not surprising considering that the majority of the Wolf’s personnel had little to do. The Mammoth’s crew ran their own ship and efficiently performed the jobs they had been trained to do. They worked on the Alamo like the professional they were and that meant they worked hard.
He had to wonder if his men were really that bored or were they just showing off. Maybe they were even trying to compete with the repair ship’s people. Knowing Rufo it was probably a little bit of all of this. He could see his friend setting up a challenge and pitting a friendly competition between the two crews to serve not only their own purpose, but also to meet a common goal.
Following him to the end of the bay, he could see that this area was where the Kardies had brought the wrecked SF-18 Hornet star fighters that they had salvaged from the debris field. About twenty-five broken and burnt remains of once noble fighters lay across the deck like some aviation graveyard. A group of five men were working around a fighter, which looked in fairly good shape.
Getting closer he recognized Chief Bell, Misters Rabb and Pendleton. The other two men were both enlisted being E-4s and who wore shoulder patches from the ISS Lexington.
“How’s it going?” he called, causing the five men to stop work and look towards him.
“We think we can have her ready for a test flight in two hours?” Pendleton blurted out, excited about the prospect of getting the fighter operational. Both Pendleton and Rabb had been going through pilot training as had most of the Wolf’s Pups.
Bell nodded his agreement as his artificial eye glowed red bobbing up and down as his head nodded.
“The young sir is not in error. In fact, give us a day or two and we should have at least four maybe five of these birds ready to fly.”
“How’s that possible?” Mike wondered as it had taken him over a month to restore just one of the Wolf’s Sabers and he had to swipe parts from another damaged fighter to do it.
Rabb fielded this question, “These two crewmen are Specialists Abbot and Clark. They were flight mechanics on the Lady Lex.”
Mike looked to the two young enlisted men and couldn’t help thinking that they were about his age.
“Men,” he said, nodding a hello and looking to them with what he hoped was a friendly smile. He was learning that a smile not only often made people feel better, but also made them work harder and trust you maybe even a little more.
“Sir,” they both said at the same time. One was a short and stocky blond whereas the other was tall and skinny with a freckled face and red hair.
“Yeah, it turns out that these Hornets were made not only with interchangeable parts like every fucking thing since the 1800’s, but also on a modular unit design,” Bell continued, pointing to a wing panel that they just replaced. “The whole damn thing is just a bunch of modules bolted together. If something breaks down and you don’t have time to go in and find the problem, you just yank the whole module. You then replace it with a good one until you have time to find the defect in the original unit. It would make Eli Whitney and Henry Ford proud”
“So you’re taking modules from wrecked fighters and hooking them up to good frames.”
“Yep, but sometimes what we think is a good module turns out to be a dud and that where our two wonder boys here come in,” he said tilting his head to the two specialists. “They are trained to tear these babies apart and they are our troubleshooters.”
“Sounds good, keep at it and let me know when you get a couple ready to be tested,” Mike said with a grin.
Rabb and Pendleton frowned figuring out that Lt. Collins was going to pull rank and take one of the fighters out to test instead of them.
“Don’t worry we’ll wait unit there are four of them ready and we’ll go out together,” Mike promised, looking from the two middies to Cappilo.
They nodded and smiled in return anxious to get into a fighter’s cockpit.
Mike started to turn to leave, but then hesitated and looked back to the two young orphaned enlisted men.
“Glad to have you men with us, keep up the good work!” he said with a smile.
The survivors of the Lexington both broke into huge grins and again said, “Yes sir!” together.
With that one moment of acknowledgment the two specialists felt better about their situation. They were no longer alone and were needed by their new captain.
Young Mister Collins left the repair deck feeling better about life and his own ability to lead.
Chapter Fifteen
They stayed in-system, hidden by the asteroid belt for the next four days. In that time the crews became closer and friendships were formed. The healthy competition to get the Alamo and Java repaired had heated up and many members of the Mammoth’s crew were amazed that a bunch of old men and young pups could work so fast.
/> Mister Cappilo was still having trouble with his mini-particle cannon and mass torpedo launcher idea and settled for putting a light cruiser’s particle turret and a standard frigate size fusion turret on the upper deck where the bridge and the normal turret would have been. Needless to say Chief Warrant Wineburg was seeing red, but he simply threw up his hands and gave into Lt. Frankenstein.
By the end of the fourth day the ISS Alamo was declared completed and ready for a test run. They had even given the ship an acid wash and a new chemical hull coating. Looking at the old frigate no one would have guessed it was twenty years old or that it had recently been severely damaged in battle. With the light cruiser particle turret installed it almost looked like a more modern heavy frigate.
The Java on the other hand look extremely odd without a command deck and the light cruiser turret made Collins think of pictures he’d seen of old steam powered Ironclads from the First American Civil War.
Thoughts and images of the USS Monitor, Merrimack (aka CSS Virginia), CSS Arkansas and the USS Keokuk raced through his mind. The first two ships were famous for their legendary duel. They being the first such ironclad ships to see combat. The second two ships had almost as interesting histories. The CSS Arkansas was a hard-hitting ironclad that had battled Admiral Farragut and his entire Union River Fleet guarding the mouth of the Mississippi. It was one tough ironclad against a fleet and the Arkansas won the day sweeping all other ships from her path. Unfortunately, her own crew would later burn her to prevent her capture.
The USS Keokuk was a one of kind ironclad with two fixed gun towers and was often called the ‘Iron Citadel.’ It had been hit over ninety times at the battle of Charleston in 1863. After the battle was over the valiant ship quickly sank.
The Java’s new profile reminded Collins of the USS Keokuk with its fixed gun towers. Still, it looked weird without a command deck. Cappilo promised that the Java would be ready for a test run in just another day. The Mammoth’s men were gracious in their victory and bought the first round of drinks for the Wolf’s crewmen.
They were duly impressed that the old gray wolves and their young pups had in their spare time along with only ten droids and two old repair robots achieved such a marvel. Though there were several jokes about what the frigate looked like including a reference to an old flat top carrier, a bad hair cut including skull bumps. With its large and smaller weapons turrets a comment about a lopsided woman’s breasts was widely circulated.
Torpedoes and missile stores were transferred to the Alamo along with provisions and standard parts. Other missiles were brought to the repair bay for when the fighters became operational.
Dr. Duarte had started a drug and therapy program for Lt. Thornton who was starting to accept his breakdown. He had been dealing with the overwhelming fear of being next in line to be gutted or beheaded by the sadistic Karduan Ship Mistress. He was now even accepting that he was acting irrationally when he tried to force Collins to accept his orders.
Angelique was ever confident that he’d recover; it was just going to take some time. She recommended keeping him confined and then gradually returning him to light duties.
Chief Bell as promised had four SF-18 Hornet fighters ready in the first two days. Mike, Rufo, Rabb and Pendleton eagerly took them out for a test run. They handle well, but Mike and Rufo liked the Saber and the Wasp better. Both the Saber and the Wasp had more speed.
Mike felt that the Saber had more firepower and the Wasp had more maneuverability. It was no wonder that the Hornet was less impressive than the more modern Saber, originally it wasn’t even meant to have a human pilot.
The Confederation Senate had wanted to reduce the risk to the fighting man and had broken the centuries old tradition of having manned fighters. Instead they would equip the Hornet as a drone or USV meaning unmanned space vehicle. The drone had proven as capable as a trained human pilot and had a cost that was comparable. It also removed the whole grieving family aspect, death insurance benefits as well as the pilot who leaves the navy after minimal time in service. The problem with this automated system happened after the third encounter with the Karduans at the Battle of Bova Four.
The Karduans had no tradition of using small ships to fight with and the concept was unfamiliar to them. When they first encountered them they were ill equipped to deal with the fast, hard to hit drones. At Bova Four that deficiency had been repaired and they were ready to turn the tables on the human drones and their masters.
The Blues weren’t stupid and had managed to tap into the SF-18’s control systems. They then used the automated machines to attack their own creators. The battle and the Confederation fleet could have been lost if it weren’t for a fail-safe feature installed in the drones.
The entire SF-18 Hornet contingent of fighters was given the command to self-destruct. The human fleet escaped the battle and all the remaining Hornets in service were retrofitted with controls for a human pilot. To do that refit to the fighter they had to sacrifice some of its performance and within the next two years the Hornet would be replaced by the SF-86 Saber.
Rabb and Pendleton were having a great time, it being their first time solo behind the stick. That is until Mister Pendleton lost power and found himself drifting towards an asteroid. Rufo slowed to a drift and then nudged the powerless fighter back into a safer trajectory. The Mammoth sent out a recover shuttle and towed him back to the ship. At dinner that night he took more than a little ribbing from his fellow middies.
Much to his delight Mike’s love life was going as well as the repairs to the ships. To maintain the impression of proper decorum they kept their contact while on duty to a minimum. When their duty shifts were over it was a different story.
On alternate nights he would sneak into her infirmary apartment or she would sneak into his quarters. He had been given senior officer’s quarters, having refused to take the former captain’s cabin. He had the captain’s personal effects as well the Karduan ship mistress’s things removed from the cabin, but he still didn’t feel right about using it.
He had never been with a woman like Angelique before. Not that his experience was all that vast. He had met a girl during a middy tour two years ago, which lasted the three weeks that he was on the ISS Unicorn, a Beast class battle cruiser. Before that assignment he had been with his high school girlfriend, but she had broken up with him after graduation. She was a junior and didn’t like the idea of a long distance relationship let alone an interplanetary or galactic one. She had even picked out his replacement before he left, her old boyfriend who was also a junior. Her loss he always thought. A military life was a hard one and relationships were usually the first casualty of war.
So he was enjoying this one and hoping it would last beyond the excitement of the moment. She was smart and funny not to mention possessing a captivating beauty that could only be described as classically elegant. Angelique seemed to be as taken with him as he was with her. If it were just a dream he prayed, he’d never wake.
On the fourth day, their respite from the war was over. Only an hour after they had officially declared the Alamo restored and fully operational trouble arrived at their door.
Collins had decided that he was better placed as captain of the Alamo than staying on the Mammoth. The frigate could strike the enemy and give the recovery ship the time they’d need to escape.
Martin was already in place as acting captain of the Mammoth. Cappilo would stay on the recovery ship to command the six SF-18 Hornet fighters. Mike would have to rethink command officer placement, if and when, the Java became fully functional. He was hoping that by then they’d be back to the ‘Hole in the Wall.’ If they weren’t home by then he’d have to use one of the Mammoth’s remaining officers or appoint one of his middies.
The Mammoth had seven remaining officers other than Lt. Thornton. Two were lieutenants junior grade; one was the assistant now head engineering officer and the other was a gunnery and maintenance officer. Two officers were chief warrants who were
repair and ship specialists. The three remaining officers were all ensigns of which only Ensign Stevens was a bridge officer.
The Alamo had only Ensign Kelly and she was an engineering and gunnery officer with no bridge experience. He could draw from his middies of which Mister Rabb was the leading candidate. It was a decision that he wasn’t looking forward to making.
His other option was to make Cappilo captain of the Java and place Mister Rabb as fighter commander, but the middy had more bridge training than fighter time. Now Mike knew why Captain Hope looked so old - it was because he had to worry about every decision and command he gave.
His decision in the end was to place Cappilo on the Java and only use the fighters as a last resort. Angelique agreed with his reasoning as they shared dinner in his quarters after leaving the repair deck.
They were just finishing their meal when the red alert sounded calling everyone to battle stations. Mike immediately went to the bridge as Angelique headed for the infirmary. They had only paused to exchange a quick kiss before they parted.
Martin was sitting in the captain’s chair as he entered and started to rise, but was waved back down.
“What’s do we have?”
“Two Karduan ships and a human passenger vessel. The Blues are a destroyer and a companion destroyer. The Earth ship is a luxury liner, a big one, the SS Mary Queen of Scots.”
Mike had remembered seeing ads for the full service pleasure ship before the war. It had six full spa gyms with four Olympic size pools, a four level restaurant with twelve individually different restaurants, a concert size theater, museum quality planetarium, three arboretums and 2,300 staterooms. It also had a vast library, two casinos, around the clock childcare and masseuse service as well as the largest traveling wine cellar in space.
Throughout the ship’s beautiful interiors were spacious lobbies, halls and rooms that dominated the guests with a feeling of elegance and wealth. It had an average crew of over 1800 personnel as well as a small children’s zoo. Even a small stateroom would have easily cost a several months’ salary for a two-week stay. It was a playground for the rich and powerful or that once in a lifetime splurge or dream honeymoon.
The Log of the Gray Wolf (Star Wolf Squadron Book 1) Page 38