Trampship Wars 2

by L. D. Roberts

  “Oh yes Chief. I will have to get back to you on that. Just take them up and put them in the old water tanks since they originally were vehicle decks. Though we are going to have to rebuild the platforms eventually. Oh I am sorry I did not grab a couple of busses but I hope the extra APCC will work for transporting people as well and should be a lot safer in the outback when we start getting shot at." Mickey showed Mark the fold down bench seats on the sides and the pop up back to back benches down the middle inside the cargo compartments of both the APCC’s and the APC’s and their trailers. Mark smiled at how many troops they could carry as he continued with the Truck Chief. "Each of the APCCs’ and APCs’ have fold down and pope up seating. When needed for busses or troop transports as well as fold down stretchers . Oh aaa. What time is the staff meeting?”

  “Zero nine hundred Commander, I am sure you are expected there. Though you have been missing them since you were promoted to Command the Engine room, the Captain has asked about you at every meeting with the Engine Chief saying some rather none flattering things about you. Even after you finished rebuilding engine number 3 and 4 doubling thier power . ” I will let you get to it then Mr. Collins. I can‘t wait to try putting the APC’s in the water tank deck. But that would explain the ramps and stacked hatch arrangements in all the bulkheads. Though I hear that maintenance is having a hard time trying to figure out how to put the outer hull hatches back on.” Smiling at Mark. “Up until last night we didn’t have anything that could lift them back into place even . Now it looks like the APCC’s can do it without strai ning. After spending half the night reading the tech manuals on the new trucks, we can at least do that. I can’t believe they have their own mini fusion cores, though they have to be lit off from the ships much larger main cores. I am going to talk with the Engineering Chief later about upgrading the truck deck’s plasma fueling station into a core fusion ignition station. The trucks little plasma batteries are plenty big to power them from their slips to the ignition station and it only takes a few seconds to start their cores .”

  The Chief was estatic ecstatic about not having a dozen large plasma batteries sitting full around the Truck deck all the time. If one had a valve fail or was punctured, the plasma flames would take out the entire deck. But then the truck plasma batteries are what saved the ship when it was taken the day Mark was born 21 years before after the pirates had drained the ships main plasma batteries and killed the main and emergency fusion cores. Which was one reason why the ship ran with the truck batteries full even when parked. The second was that it took hours to trickle charge each battery . Time that would be lost if they had to wait to charge them after landing with only the one charging station . But the most important reason was simply that the old plasma batteries would disintegrate into junk if they were allowed to discharge until they were completely empty.

  The Chief sat back and thought for a few seconds with a frown growing bigger by the second. “Though I am afraid we are going to have to rebuild the parking slips as well since the damn trucks barely fit into them making it impossible to get around them for maintenance. That means taking out most of the storage compartments, workshops and office space to make enough room around each of them.” Shaking his head. “Damn Commander, you have made another mess down here for me to clean up behind you.”

  Taking a deep breath the Chief gave Mark a dirty look. “Hell I just may talk to the Captain about having you take these back for some standard militar y trucks without all the damn armor so that that we won’t have to remodel half the damn deck for. Besides we don’t need tanks with damn weapons running around delivering cargo. It is just bad taste showing up with a damn panzer and saying special delivery, pay up or else.” Giving Mark a frown. “Yes I think standard trucks would be a better idea anyway. Out.” The Chief scrawled at Mark as he cut the connection before Mark could say anything.

  With the disappearance of the Truck Chief, Mark shook his head. “Damn it Chief, we may have to do just that or we die out there.” Mark turned around to his Aid. “Am I expected at the morning staff meetings?”

  “Yes sir. But you have been a little busy lately sir.”

  “Well, I guise breakfast is over then. Time is a wasting.”

  The Captain appeared across the table as Mark was getting up. “Where the hell are you going Commander? I call and you get up! I don’t think so. Sit back down.” The Captain looked around his screen. “Where the hell are you? That does not look like an office or your cabin.”

  “Ah, I was just having breakfast Captain. In the Junior Officer’s Mess sir.” Mark sat back down. “And I don’t have an office sir.” Mark said trying not to sound like he was contradicting the Captain as the Bosom got his attention shaking his head yes as he pointed up.

  The Captain barked. “Yes you do. Since when did we start putting video phones on mess tables Commander?”

  “Sorry Captain. But I was just reminded that informed I do have an office. I have just not had time to check it out yet. And this is my personal phone sir. Can I help you sir.”

  “You have a personal Videophone Mr. Collins. Well , so be it but why are you eating in the Junior Officer’s mess? I expect my flag officers to eat breakfast in the main officer’s mess where we can talk ships business for the coming day and be on the same page. And you being a Lt. Commander now, you should not even be down there." Tapping her fingers on the disk for a second she grabbed a stogie and stuffed it in her mouth. "I want a copy of the report you sent the Admiral on yesterday’s incident before today’s staff meeting if you please.”

  Mark took a half second before answering. “Captain you should have the report in your mail already sir.”

  The Captain looked down at a side screen for a second and then back at Mark. “Now isn’t that a coincidence Mr. Collins. I ask you about the report and it drops into my mail box. You had time to wright this report but not get back to me on several flagged mails I sent you yesterday? Perhaps you could tell me what you think of them about it now?”

  Mark smiled before answering. “Sure Captain , just let me take a few seconds to recall what they it w ere as about.” His hands flicked across the table as he sorted through his mails and then with it opened, did a quick read before slowing his mind back down. “Ah Captain . Captain. I sent you a report on the Cargo hold incident. I am sure it will get to you soon. It probably got lost in the server or something. As well as the reports on the refit and upgrade for engines 3 and 4. Sorry but I can’t give you much about the upgrade on engine number 2 as I have again been kicked out of the engineering spaces.” Tapping the table a few more times he smiled. “Fact is , I bet all the reports you have requested should be showing up shortly. You know how servers are with new accounts. Heck, it took me days just to get on the system after I was sworn in. Could not seem to find the darn password when I took over Engine room 3. No one seemed to know it.”

  The Captain studied her side screen for several minutes as Mark sat there tapping and flicking his fingers here and there over the table grabbing bights cleaning his plate as he read. Finely the Captain looked up and shook her head. “After talking to the Admiral and Captain Summers, I was skeptical but I must admit I am impressed with these reports. Must be a thousand pages of very detailed and complete reports and what I have read is concise and just the facts without blowing your own horn. In fact just the opposite. Giving as much credit to others as possible. All of which seemed to have been generated in the last few minutes according to the time stamps on the files. I am sure that when I read the report on yesterday's battle I will also find everything in it concerning your AI will be white washed or put into shit speak to hide the fact that you have an AI wrapped around your head. Though according to the Admiral; your AI is the sole reason for the battle as well as the reason with your help, the battle was a success. I am even concerned that it is why we are getting all this new equipment without my permission or even knowing about them ahead of time.”

  Marks Mouth dropped open.

&nbs
p; “Finely Mr. Collins, everything you have done since your unauthorized trip to town for your implants makes sense. Though I was suspecting more each day that your glasses were more than just a nice PDA.” The Captain sat back in her chair. “Now that we have that shit out of the way, you can get your god damn ass up to my office NOW and if you ever bullshit me again, I will dump you out of the lock myself.”

  “Yes Sir Captain. I need to…”

  “I said NOW Commander. Immediately, Stat. A.S.A.P. Is that clear Mr. Collins?”

  After the Captain dissolved, Mark sat there for a minute starring at the Captain's long gone image and then at the table as his fingers started sliding, flicking and tapping. Calling the boson mate over as he worked. “I need you to find my new torch. I lost it last night someplace aboard ship I think. And I need it before I go anyplace and that means immediately.” Mark paused a second. “Ok, it should still up in sickbay with my English pistol. Give me a call when you get them it and yes it needs the blood cleaned off and charged .” After the last week with his life being threatened every time he turned around he felt more than naked now without at least the torch he had converted into a weapon. “And I will need an electricians and optical tool kit bag. Thanks Boson.” Tapping several places on the table a few more times Mark got up , pointed at several officers while telling them to fallow him on the way out and left the Junior Officers Mess.

  Getting off at the Boat deck Mark walked down the passageway past the hatches into the Shuttle Boat locks on that side of the ship and stepped through the hatch at the end of the passageway into one of the life boat compartments followed by a few extra officers that tagged along. A couple of Life boat shells sat in the middle of the open compartment. Dragged out of the launch tubes to be stripped for parts in an attempt to keep some of them in working order. The life boats had become the ship’s gigs between ships in orbit for up to a dozen passengers in relative comfort with 20 in an emergency evacuation. But usually they served as captain’s barges for the Captain and a few officers or Council or Tradesmen for dealing with other ships or smaller stations. Over time more and more of them had stopped working until out of some hundred 49 lifeboats in the locks in just this lifeboat compartment s on this side of the ship, only 6 remained in operation and half of those were questionable with breakdowns and problems every time they had been used lately.

  The 24 life boats from the upper row of locks staggered off to one side of the lower row of locks to keep them from interfering with each other in an emergency, had been junked long ago when the upper locks had been cheaply turned into gun and torpedo locks leaving only the 25 mostly ju n s k life boats still in the lower locks. What Mark was looking at as he walked into the compartment was the upper row of old life boat locks with 10 Quad 20mm mounts , a half dozen new (for the Queen) 3 inch 70cal auto load hull gun mounts s , a half dozen old worthless open hull 5inch 21cal short barreled guns good for taking out boats and even torpe does using a form of canister shot at close range if they got lucky and a couple sets of Torpedo triple launch tubes for torpedoes, again only good at short point blank range. Ea ch of the mounts were mounted on a rail that allowed them to be pushed out across the old lifeboat hatch that formed a ramp when opened, to the outer edge of the ramp where it was swung over the end to hang over the side of the hull, giving each gun or torpedo launcher an unobstructed sight line for e and aft. Each gun or torpedo lock had a man sized lock added through the inner hatch to allow crews to go in and out of the ship lock while the outer hatch was open during combat.

  Right now most of the large upper row of lock s wide main inner hatches were opened down as platforms showing the weapons inside and the rails to push the weapon out onto the lowered outer ramps (when they it w ere as open) for maintenance while the ship was in the pit. With the sides of the locks lined with racks full of magazine boxes for the 20mm’s, charge cases for the 5 inch and 3 inch guns and torpedo's for the launch tubes ers .

  It had been awhile since he had been in the compartment and he had been worried that the upper row of guns would interfere with the lower row of lifeboat locks still full of boat shell carcasses. Breathing a sigh of relief that was one thing he didn’t have to worry about with the upper and lower locks staggered so they were not directly over or under one another. He was also glad that he remembered right that the lower row had one additional lock to use. Walking out into the middle, Mark looked into one of the gutted life boats that had been dragged out de cades before and stripped of parts . Remembering all the hours as a kid he had spent playing pirates and fighter aces and battleships and explorers in them.

  Turning to the officers that had followed him . Mark smiled. "Gentlemen in a short time, we are going to turn this bay into an APC bay. That means that these old boats and equipment in the lower locks and across the compartment , have to be taken out. Cleaning this and the West bay out to get them ready for constructing the necessary cradles, maintenance lifts and launchers for the new armored lifeboats.” Walking over to one of the empty locks Mark launch tubes he walked into it examin ed ing its hatches' condition and then hit ting the open button. Coming to the conclusion as it started making loud pops, bangs and squeaks, that it probably had not been opened for at least 20 years but that the dimensions would work perfectly for both the APC’s and might even fit the fighter when it was rebuilt. Taking a quick look out the opening hatch as it dropped own to form a platform that was much too small to be of any use landing anything on even though it could be used for launching as long as the APC was just flung away from the ship by the lifeboat lock’s original catapults. Suddenly hopping that they would work but not really caring at that moment. They could always be fixed eventually. Mark turned around and went back into the main compartment.

  “The Auxiliary engineering crew should be up here in a short while along with a Deck crew.” Mark turned to the Auxiliary Maintenance Officer. “You should have orders by now and I want you to make sure it gets done to specs that you will find on your PDA.” Turning to the deck and cargo officers. “The same for you guys as well. It is going to take a monumental effort to get this done before launch and if you have to , just push the old lifeboats out the launch locks down on top of the damn garbage pile from the junk hold tubes then do it . Got it?”

  After everyone acknowledged the orders, Mark left the deck and headed for the Captains office. Suddenly thinking that he should have told them that if they did push the junk boats out the locks, to make sure the pit was clear first. But no. They would certainly have enough common sense to do that wouldn’t they? Right? He was not comforted by should. Regretting that he had not specifically said so but not having the time to go back.

  Mark walked up to the Captain’s receptionist’s desk. “Commander Collins Reporting as ordered mam.”

  “Go right in Mr. Collins. The Captain is expecting you.” Her smile said nothing about what to expect. He had never been in the Captain’s office without being in trouble before. The last time he was almost thrown out the lock without a suit and figured he was in trouble now.

  Walking up to the Captain’s desk, Mark came to attention and saluted. “Lieutenant Commander Colin’s reporting as ordered Captain.”

  “Sit down Mr. Collins.” The Captain returned his salute nonchalantly and continued to read something on her screen. Mark could not help seeing that it was the report on the cavern battle even though he could not see the screen directly as she looked up at Mark. “Commander, things just seem to happen without rhyme or reason in this report with big holes in the time line such as why this Priestess suddenly appears for no apparent reason. Sure it has you plugging in the plug but how the hell did you know where to drill and weld the optical fibers into the tower? And why did this Doctor AI want you so bad and spend so much time destroying dead computers. And how come you spent so much time repairing those old computers. Hell, not to mention how you managed to repair those damn computers and why did you put the glasses on Tom. Do you care to elaborate on those and dozens of other
unexplained magical points on all these other reports Commander?”

  “Ah Sir. Would you like the “none” redacted report Captain?”

  “No Mr. Collins! Just leave my head in the toilet about the little important things that I have asked you about. Especially the AI Sitting on your nose.”

  Mark turned red at that comment. “It will be is in your desks in box momentarily now Captain. I or to be more exact, Mickey , is have up dat ed ing all the rest of the reports now as well sir.”

  “ Mickey? Well, t T hey should be interesting reading later Commander but for now just give me the short layman’s version in the shortest possible words.” The Captain leaned back interlacing her hands behind her head as she took a puff on the stogie clenched between her teeth. Her eyes staring daggers at Mark.

  “Well Captain. My glasses are not just a pair of glasses with a personal computer built in. They are a thousand year old Imperial AI Assistant for a Police Detective or Inspector. It has anything you would ever need to salve a crime. Any crime from murder , rape, assaults, arson, to computer fraud or embezzlement. It has t T he sensors and labs and anything else you can imagine built in as , Mickey can do well as other enhancements . From what Mickey tells me , all inspector trainees s where required to have years of experience and master degrees and then only one out of a thousand was accepted by a set of glasses to become an Inspector.”

  “Ok and why do you have a set of these special glasses then?

  “ Actually I wanted the eye implants the Engineering Chief has or had but the Doctor refused to allow me to get my eyes cut out at the time and then you forbid it later . He offered the set of glasses as a substitute instead. As for why the Glasses worked on me when they had stayed blank for the hundreds of other pe ople the Doctor had tried them on? Well . You will have to ask Mickey why she picked me Sir.”