Trampship Wars 2

by L. D. Roberts

  "Come Mr. Collins. While this planet has the standard rules requiring lifeboats on all ships. I cannot believe that they would deny us permission to leave simply because this old tramp does not have enough life boats. No planet has ever cared before."

  Mark turned to Mickey. "Could you run a quick check to see if this planet has any restrictions concerning lifeboats and tramps headed for the Outback?"

  Mickey smiled and stood up walking across the office to face the Captain . "Besides the statements we have gotten from the officers we have dealt with already that say we need them. I have accessed the files of every ship headed for the outback and they all are listed as having a full complement of life boats and rafts for the crew. I cannot find anything at the moment that says what that full complement of life boats mean s though the half dozen having crews bigger than the original ship’s complement are listed as having larger than their normal complement of life rafts." Stopping in front of the Captain's desk. It looks like life boats are one of the big items to receiving clearance Captain , along with weapons. Others are…"

  "No. That is unheard of. No one cares if a tramp lives or dies except this stupid planet." Mashing out her stogie. "Mr. Collins get the old junk life boats out of their tubes and those APC;s in them today and I will see about getting an airlock installed on the truck deck."

  "I am sorry Captain.” Mickey turned from looking out the port. “But even with the big APCC's as life boats; the Star Queen falls far short of having enough seats." Mickey said as she walked over to the port to get a better look look out .

  Captain Cook frowned and then took her time lighting up a new cigar as she studied the ghostly Mickey standing in the planets direct bright red planets sunlight washing her image out a little . The lit stogie still smoldering in the tray giving off smoke that rose toward the over head overhead with the circulation duct blowing it toward Mickey. Finely she took another puff and turned to Mark. "Mr. Collins it seems that we are up against one hell of a gravity well of red tape here. We are pretty much broke and still need equipment that we had not even known we needed. Hell we could not even afford to rent a damn crane to lift the water tank hatches you blew off the side of the ship, back up to reinstall them." Taking another puff. "I want you to get those new lifeboats installed in our locks on the life boat deck and when you pick up our old junk trucks , I want you to see about fixing our life boat problem. We have to get clearance to leave this system on schedule." Taking another puff. "Without pissing off the English and if you get arrested I will throw you to the wolves for disobeying orders if I can even remember your name."

  "I already have a crew cleaning out the life boat bays but we are going to need to do a bit of modifications to the locks Captain. We will need a ramp built in front of each lock to allow the APC's to land on before sliding into the locks sir."

  The Captain looked at Mark with raised eyebrows as she thought for a few seconds. "What if we just build one platform for landing Commander? There is plenty of room inside the bay to shift APC;s around. A lot simpler and cheaper and may be able to get finished before we lift."

  "No!" Mark snapped making the Captains mouth drop open as her face started turning red. "We are going to need to be able to recover more than one APC at a time sir."

  The Captain narrowed her eyes as her face turned back to normal. "No. Come to think of it, we have an empty shuttle boat lock now thanks to you and another as soon as we get that damn hulk jettisoned. Good idea and a lot simpler Commander. The shuttle locks already have landing platforms on them and 6 5 0 odd APC's should fit in the two empty shuttle locks easy enough, along with the torpedo bombers. Sounds about right with plenty of room to spar I would guess." Blowing another smoke ring she smiled.

  Mark shook his head as he grimaced. “I am sorry Captain but with the squadron of torpedo bombers. We will barrely barely have room in the two locks for them and their maintenance equipment. Though I was planning on putting my fighter when it is rebuilt in with the boat locks and the APC’s to make more room and also speed up launching it as a scout without having to open up the main boat bays. The little lifeboat catapult should fling the fighter well away from the ship with plenty of velocity to fly even in an atmosphere. As soon as they get the old life boats dumped out of the locks it should not take long to add simple platforms around the hatches big enough to land the APC’s on and even my fighter.”

  The Captain’s eyebrows raised at Mark’s statement and then shook her head. " You can make two platforms for each bay for now Commander and that is all . The Shuttle crews y are stripping the shuttle hulk now and filling it with garbage so one of the shuttles can lift it off t he ramp and take it to its new owner wh ich you will tag along so the buyer can meet you before we eject it out into the pit . Why he doubled the bid just to meet you I don’t have a clue but we will tak e advantage of it. We need the money. " Taking another puff. "You can go ahead and have your crews finish cleaning out the lifeboat bays . but t T hey can cut up and dump the carcasses so they can be moved into the locks for the airtruck’s... I mean your new gravity trucks can pick them up from the ramp and take them to the pit the port ha s now designated as a dumping sight for all the ships in the port. Where the legitimate junk companies will pick the garbage up in the shuttle hulk before it leaves us . I don’t want you dumping them down into the pit with the rest of the garbage with everything going on down there at the moment It seems we have to clean out our own pit now . Besides it would not look g ood if we have a bunch of lifeboat shells sitting on the junk pile if we have to convince some comity we have enough lifeboats. " The Captain smiled as she blew another smoke ring and watched it drift across her desk and float through Mickey as Mickey watched the ring hit her.

  Suddenly the smoke going through Mickey her started slowing down and twisting around to form a smoky shell in the shape of the visible Mickey as the smoke seamed to start interacting with the hologram light fields. Mickey held up her arm , watching the effect of the smoke as she walked over to stand next to Mark almost looking solid as she kept looking down at her own slightly smoke colored arm and smiled. Having forgotten that Mickey was a hologram the Captain frowned. "You are out of uniform Mr. A Collins. Now get out of here and put on a proper uniform. You are dismissed. I have to call procurement and see if we can find some old junk life boats or rafts rafts we can get as scrap after you deliver that junk gunboat shuttle . Not to mention getting those damn hatches remounted on the damn tank deck has turned out to be a fricking nightmare. I am still not convinced you needed to blow them."

  "Ah Captain." Said Mark hesitatingly. "Ah, one more thing. The Admiral wants me to help them check out their other Tower AI's. I told him he was going to have to ask you. I guess he didn’t. Maybe you could trade my services for some of their inflatable life rafts they equip their combat ships with."

  "Mr. Collins. I have already said no to the Admiral. I am not about to risk Star Queen lives when a planet has plenty of its own personnel to take care of its business. You have done quite enough.” Taking a puff on her stogie. “But then you do have a point. M m aybe as an advisor kept safe out of harm’s way?… ” A big smile came to the Captain’s face as she took a huge puff on her stogy and exhal ed to the side away from Mark and Mickey.

  Mickey suddenly stepped sideways to intercept the smoke. Her body becoming considerable denser looking as the smoke seemed to flow into her as her cloths changed into a ship’s ensigns uniform .

  Captain Cook ignored the solidifying M ickey as she looked at Mark with a devilish smile . “ It is great when someone needs something you have when you don't need anything from them and hell when you need something and they don't need anything from you. So maybe we are in luck.” Blowing a long stream of smoke across the compartment away from both Mark and Mickey again without thinking . Only to have Mickey move over into the stream of smoke again .

  Not even noticing Mickey taking the smoke into herself making her body look more solid Captain Cook made a decision. Looking at Mark a
s she leaned forward in her chair. “Now that we need something, I want you to use the Admiral’s need for your help to our advantage and get us what we need to get the hell off this planet ." The Captain shook her head looking down at her desk. "I can't tell you how because I will not be there and it is too late to go into negotiations with the Admiral to trade your services for these inflatable lifeboats or anything else we need that I do not even know about. But then your father was one hell of a Trade Master before he retired. I can only hope that some of his ability rubbed off on you and with Mickey's help, you just may do the trick. Hell , you damn well better do the trick."

  Taking a big puff on her stogy , she sent another smoke ring in another direction only to have Mickey ste p move in front of it again as she laid back in her chair. "It is my hope that you will be able to twist the Admirals arm if to nothing else have that peace of red tape cut out of our way. Something I cannot ask for now because of how close we are to launching and because I already said no to him in no uncertain and not very polite terms. I do not like risking my people’s lives.”

  Frowning as she grimaced to herself. “That is what I get for burning that bridge behind me. I should know better. Too damn late now. Going back and begging now would leave us at a huge disadvantage with no leverage to deal with and a wall we are about to crash into that says we have to take whatever they offer even if it turns out not to be enough." Taking a deep puff and holding it as she closed her eyes for several seconds and then looked at Mark and Mickey as she exhaled again in another direction to keep from hitting e i a ther of them. Mickey again moved to intercept the smoke, she seemed to be growing more solid and human with each puff of smoke. "Use the fact that you are disobeying my orders at great risk , to get this ship whatever it needs to launch." Turning away she to starred out the large port at the ship in the next pit. "And I mean everything Commander. Dismissed!"

  After Mark was gone , the Captain continued to stare out at the port around the ship wondering if they would ever launch again as a ship in the distance climbed for the stars leaving a flaming trail behind. Shaking her head a few minutes later as the ship disappeared from sight in the distance, the comm buzzed to life. Slapping the switch. "Yes!"

  "Sir; this is Air truck control. Mr. Collins has requested a grav-truck. Number 13 for an indefinite time with no destination."

  "So?"

  "But sir; it is against regulations to not supply time and destination on the request and even more important he has 3,000 credits of speeding and reckless driving tickets that are preventing him from receiving any clearances in or outside the Port until they are paid not to mention he was responsible for the entire Ports crash company showing up with reinforcements from a hundred miles away last night. They insist ed that he impacted the side of the Star Queen doing 300 knots last night. We are going to be lucky if we don’t have to pay their expenses to. Besides number 13 is already out. What do you want me to do?"

  Captain Cook buried her head in her hands as she said a little curse to herself then looked around at the screen and the lieutenant. "He is a God Damn Commander of this ship and you will treat him like a Commander and Pay the damn fines and issue a damn truck to him and pray he comes back with what we need. And you did not have to come to me to get permission. Fact is you didn’t come to me. Is that clear Lieutenant ? " Then slapped the com off. Suddenly jerking her head up, the Captain groaned. "Damn! I cut the AI off when she was starting a list of things that had kept other ships from getting clearance to launch. "Shaking her head. “How many and what of those items apply to us?" Taking a deep breath she exhaled. "Well I did say to get this ship whatever it needs to launch. But will he?"

  The com sounded again. Reaching around she pressed the switch. "Yes."

  "Commander Collins sir! He…" Came the excited pissed off voice at the other end.

  "My Godstar. What now?"

  --------------

  Mark finely stepped out into the lifeboat bay and looked across the 260 foot wide, 100 hundred foot deep half-moon shaped compartment with two staggered rows of 12 X10 by 30 foot long locks lining the half-moon curved round outer hull of the ship. The 10 foot wide 9 foot high and 29 foot long carcasses of a half dozen old junk life boats were spread around the deck, being cut up with torches as equipment was stripped off of them. The inch thick Carbon Compossit Composite shells of the double hulls , not submitting to demolition easily. Mark walked up to the Deck Chief. "What is taking so long here Chief?”

  The Chief turned around. “Mr. Collins; we are cutting them up into small enough pieces to fit through the hatches and into the shuttle lock. To be picked up by the trucks dumped into the old shuttle per your revised orders sir. Turning back around to look at the nearest hull being cut up. "A process that is turning out to be harder than we thought with these damn carbon hulls."

  Mark shook his head as he watched a man sized bundle of Carbon hull plates on a cart being taken through the narrow hatch and down the passageway between the boat locks to the hatch into the lock to be picked up later by the trucks stuffed into the back of the junk ed shuttle boat . Life boat hull plates lay scattered around the compartment waiting to be bundled onto the little carts for transport. Looking at the strait flat bulkhead with shuttle bays 2 and 4 lined up on the other side of it stretching from one side of the ship to the other with only the narrow single hatch in the middle to the passageway that ran across the ship between the ends of the boat locks and the other life boat bay on the other side of the ship.

  Though there was the big double wide hatch in the center far above the deck just below the overhead three decks above the hatch Mark had just stepped through. and the small personnel hatch. Pressed up against the overhead, the big hatch now opening into open air which was why it had been welded up long ago , creating a compartment on the other side used for storage. The ramps and grates that would have funnel ed passengers flooding down from the hatch to their life boats in an emergency were long gone as well.

  Smiling , Jack turned to the Chief. "Come to think of it Chief. It is pretty stupid not having a hatch between the life boat bay and the two shuttle locks when they are right next to each other sharing the same bulkhead. Especially now that we will be transferring cargo into the APC lifeboats to drop dirtside from orbit . You can stop cutting the boats up into small pieces. We are going to need a hatch big enough to get the lifeboats through as well as cargo .” Mark looked up as a smile grew on his face. “Hell w cargo through so we e m m ight as well as make it big enough to get the APC’s through as well and we don’t have to worry about building a bunch of damn ramps outside each lock to recover them right now . So cut a hole in the bulkhead big enough to get the APC’s through in to the lock with the junk shuttle in it Chief. Then do the same into the other lock on this side and the n the other lifeboat compartment on the other side of the ship into their boat locks as well."

  The Captain had ordered using the empty lock for getting rid of the junk life boats , so anything he had to do to get the job done should be part of the orders. Right? Besides if he was able to get the new lifeboats and liferafts, it would be easier to get them in through the main Boat Locks than trying to feed them in through the hatches without the proper sized platforms on them at the moment or one of the ship derricks in the expensive main pits .

  "You have got to be kidding Commander. I don't have authorization to cut through a stressed airtight bulkhead."

  "Ya you're right Chief but I do." Mark stepped over and grabbed the nearest torch. A big industrial two handed plasma cutter that was creeping to damn slowly through the thick carbon composite shell and as the operator jerked his helmet up to see who was messing with him, Mark took that too. “Excuse me please.” Was all Mark said.

  Walking over to the Bulkhead near the single wide hatch into the cross connect passageway, he started cutting then stopped and turned around. "Chief get someone over on the other side with a fire mat and extinguisher and make sure I don't catch something on fire once I punch a hole t
hrough.” Then went back to punching the first hole through the thick foam steal bulkhead.

  The Chief walked up. "Commander stop. You don't know what is on the other side of that bulkhead."

  Mark paused, raised his helmet, stared at the bulkhead for a few seconds and then smiled as he turned to the Chief. "Sure I do Chief. I know exactly what is on the other side and even doubled checked. Just get someone over there now for fire watch and to check and make sure it is clear." Then went back to punching a hole with the torch through . It took another full minute to penetrate the foam steel but finely it punched through and the backlashing flames and sputtering metal beads stopped burning his arms and burning holes in his new kaki’s as the torch met al started smoothly cutting a nice straight sharp line in the foam metal as he worked his way up the bulkhead. Surprised he remembered how to from his time as a Cadet in the hull tech shop that included hundreds of hours bent over steel plates with a first clas s hull tech looking over his shoulder criticizing every wobble , jagged edges, slip or mistake while cutting . O nly to weld it back up again with the same critique to start cutting the plate all over again.

  Mark felt someone tapping his shoulder. Since his back and legs and arms were starting to hurt from holding the unnatural position he had been in for the last few minutes, he took a break. The pain in his back and legs from cutting bent over making straitening up hard as he turned around . It had been y ears since he had worked in the H ulltech department where he spent half his work days bent over welding or cutting but know after only a few minutes Mark’s back was killing him. Though he remembered the same problem the first few weeks he worked welding and cutting before his muscles had strengthen ed to the strain . Mark couldn’t believe he was that much out of shape . .