Mark ignored her as he worked at opening the hatch. Not having much luck as her directions did not seem to work. Making him believe that they were already too high for the hatch to work but too pissed still at her to ask for her to call for help.
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Captain Cook looked up from her screen. “Yes Navigator.”
“We are coming up on suborbital insertion Captain. In 30 seconds with your permission sir.”
“Yes. Permission granted. Let's get going, we have stalled around here long enough. I still have a ship to get ready to launch.” Turning to the Comm button for the little fleet. She started to hit it and paused then punched in shuttle 4's number. “Mr. Slaterly: did I not tell you to have Mr. Collins call me as soon as he was aboard your boat? Why have I not heard from him yet?” T On t he bridge’s large main screen s s witched to the bridge of # 4 Shuttle . Captain Cook ; she looked over the mostly half empty bridge with Commander . Slatterly piloting.
“He has not reported aboard yet and no one has seen him sir.”
“I saw him land on your boat Mr. Slatterly so I know he was on your.... boat....” Closing her eyes briefly she hit the controls on her chair’s screen. A view of the exterior of shuttle 4 popped on with shuttle 3 in the corner much closer almost blocking her view. A bright red suit gleamed on the bow of number 4 shuttle close between the bridge ports. “Jesus Criste Superstar. He is....”
The main screen with the bridge of # number 4 Shuttle boat still on it, suddenly banged as a cloud of vapor formed in a shriek of escaping air and loose debris. A hatch directly above the empty command chair pivoted down into sight and in dropped a red suited head and shoulders that crawled in grabbing a hand rail to the stern of the hatch . The figure bein g buffeted in the wind storm out side the hatch still twisting and turning as it tied to suck him back out of the hatch .
All too slowly the figure slid in through the hatch to swing his butt and legs down down through the hatch to land standing on the seat of the command chair. The figure grabbed the hatch and shoved it back up into place and twisted the recessed handle to lock it. As air was replaced with the quieting storm, the red suited figure sat down in the command chair. Folding his helmet back into his collar he started taking deep breaths looking around half dazed .
Starring at the young man sitting in the command chair, Captain Cook shook her head. “Mr. Collins you keep amazing me.” Hitting her com switch for the little fleet. “Prepare for sub orbital insertion in 10 seconds.” Tapping the switch again. “Mr. Collins. When you have recovered, we will have to talk. Captain Cook out.” She cut the connection. Knowing full well that it was she that needed to recover. She was having a hard time believing what she had seen even as she ran it over in her mind over and over again. It was just too many impossible to believe actions if she had not seen them herself.
Actually she still did not believe what she had seen back at the ship ’s p it . Turning to the rest of the officers around the bridge. She had already watched replays of the boy's drop out of the cargo hold and now she watched his epic climb up the side of the shuttle that had been recorded automatically on the shuttles external cameras even though no one had been watching at the time. Including almost being blown off the hull as bo a t 3 crossed over to take up the new position she had ordered it to. She still could not believe. So she decided subconsciously to ignore the whole affair m . As if neither they had not actually happened. It was easier to keep her sanity that way.
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Mark sat in the emerg ency navigation bubble behind the bridge. The bubble had instruments for sighting the positions of stars and objects through the small clear dome. The Star Queen’s shuttles had somewhat smaller but iden tical domes on them that he loved sitting in when they were in space on maneuvers as a Cadet . Giving him an unobstructed view of the Stars. Something he even did in the usually abandoned navigation bubble on the Star Queen. The fact that he need ed gl asses made him want to see everything he could with his naked eyes as much as possible. Just in case he lost his sight completely which records show ed other people with his gene deformity had done.
The curvature of the planet stretched out before him with the darkness of space above. The huge gas giant in the background with the hot red star behind his back. Mark found himself looking at a spot along the thin asteroid ring circling the gas giant . Something kept pulling is eyes toward that spot. Even when he was on the ground at night with the dark heavens abov e broken by the gas giant and the long tall narrow ring. While he got lost on planets s urfaces all too easily, in the cold dark space he always knew where he was and which way was which. Kn owing that the spot he kept looking at was the same spot within miles. But still not knowing why. Something he had never done before.
Shaking his head Mark took a deep breath as he looked away from the ring and toward the distant horizon and the huge city coming over edge. Their target destination. Finely calmed down from his little walk on the hull , Mark dropped down out of the bubble and headed for the cargo hold. He still had a thousand things to do and think about.
Chapter 18: Hurry up and twiddle your thumbs --------- 274
The shuttles reinterred the atmosphere in blazing fireballs still in formation . T t hen split up as they approached the city. What looked like a hundred habitat towers spread across miles of park land with lakes and streams running into running into rivers and boating canals running around and between them to lakes and eventually the ocean beyond . W w ith roads and pedestrian and bicycle paths and beautiful foot bridges meandering around it all. Traffic bridges arched in gentle turns between each mile high habitat tower in a network that appealed to the eye as they approached the city with Mickey showing Mark a network of tunnels below ground bypassing and connecting the industrial side it all together and then running to small cities on the distant horizon far below ground along the sleek elevated tracks high speed passenger trains raced as he watched .
The shuttle Mark was in dropped down between the towers to land a couple of miles from the targeted tower in a large open field park along a high ridge . A few minutes later, Mark road out on the top of the 8 inch SP Gun carriage that was the last out of the back of the Assault shuttle, following over two a hundred marines and their bots, several light tanks and a dozen APC’s that had joined the troops back at the Queen , to spread out in a line along the ridge well below the crest, around the field pointed toward the tower with the AI and hostages in the sub-basement. Bodies and dead tanks could be seen in the distance next to the tower with a line of infantry and tanks dug in circling the tower a thousand yards in front of the shuttle. The other shuttles came in circled around to land at the other 3 points of the compass around the tower.
The Gun Captain of the self-propelled gun just happened to be was Mark ’ s turret captain when he trained in the Port side turret a few years before as a cadet and was glad Mark had made something of himself. To Marks surprise, the First Class had known enough about the recon ball with help of the Torpedo First Class over the comms between the shuttles, to allow Mickey to access her records allowing Mark to read up a little on the sensor. Though they were going to have to wait until he could hook up with the torpedo First Class in shuttle O o ne and his access cable to find out if Mark really had something there or just a piece of junk from a bygone era.
Mark hung out of the open gun hatch in the front corner on the passanger passenger side of the cab , as the SPG (Self Propelled Gun) pulled to the back of the field and up to the very a top of a little knawel on the rid ge. The and the Gun Captian Captain proceeded to emplace set the mount up with the cab at the front of the big vehicle facing away from the target area. Mark watched with fascination as the out riggers at the bow and sides of the SP reached out and dug themselves into the ground and then the gun barrel raised up from between above the generators and the notched crewcab at the front. The turret turned around a hundred and eighty degrees to face the rear of the SP and the distant the base of the tower with a
clear direct field of fire over the heads of the troops onto the towers base of the distant tower . The First Class Turret Captain soon had the entrances and exits dialed in for fire missions with the guns sensors scanning the windows and openings of the first 10 stories for signs of activity and weapons. Just to be on the safe side, Mark had assigned a couple of bots to the SPG ’s as guards and help if the Gunner Captains y First Class needed it. Mark watched the two bots take up positions a hundred yards to the sides of the Self Propelled Gun.
Once the gun turret was set up with the gun ratings manning the sensors, the First Class with a set of field glasses , stuck his head out of the drivers driver’s hatch some 8 6 feet from Mark across the notch the barrel tube had laid in with a set of field glasses . Putting the field glasses to his eyes he scanned the tower. “Now what Commander? How long do we sit here?”
“Hell if I know West First Class . As long as it takes I guise for something to happen I gues s . I am in the dark as much as you. You getting the feed from the sensor torpedo's orbiting the tower?”
“Sure , but they are a ways out sir. A little better than As well as the guns own sensors which are damn good to start with . But I still like my old Mk 1 eyeballs sir.” The First Class put down his field glasses and looked at Mark. “Are you really serious about putting these guns in the Star Queen’s turrets Sir? It is going to put a lot of guys out of work.”
“Well now. The Marine Master Sgt w as ere bitching about wanting manned tanks to go with the bot tanks. Something about not trusting bots. We would need crews for them and not just ammunition loaders . Think they would mind becoming tankers with their own tanks?”
“I don’t know Commander but I suppose they might like that idea. You sure these 8 inch tubes will fit into the 5 inch gun carriages of the turrets not to mention handling the added recoil?”
“No problem First Class, we just have to up the pressure a little of the recoil compensator. It was designed a lot heavier than it needed to be for only a 5inch gun. The only worry I have is adding a cooling jacket to the barrel so they don’t over heat in a vacuum.”
“Cooling jacket? Sir?” The First Class sounded sadly baffled as he gave Mark a strange look. “They already have a cooling system built into the barrel. All we have to do is hook it up to the turret's cooling system sir. Are you sure this big barrel with a cooling jacket tube will fit into the 5inch mount’s carriages barrel slide?” H h e asked again wondering if Mark really knew what he was talking about.
“Well know Sgt. The specks all say that the carbon ceramic composite Mk 9, 8 inch tube is about a half inch smaller than the diameter of the steel 5 inch tube of our current turret’s 5 inch steel guns, but then it does not say anything about an active cooling system for the 8 inch gun barrel tube either. In fact it says a whole bunch of things about firing and cooling procedures just because the gun has no cooling system.”
“Well there you go Sir. These are the Mk 12 guns and not the old Mk 9s sir. They may not fit sir.”
“Well now let’s take a look First Class.” C c limbing up out of the hatch, Mark swung his legs over the side and dropped slid down onto the back of the generator on that side and then down to the gundeck of the SP between the two rows of generators where the gun-tube (Barrel) had been and walked back to the rear of the turret.
The Sgt. Yelled down at him. “No sir! The gun is on auto fire. You can’t go into the turret while it is active.”
“Mark smiled over his shoulder. “Not going in Sgt. Just need to peek in the hatch for a second.” Opening the hatch on top to the right side of the turret, Mark was glad Mic key showed him that the gunner had safed the gun as he stuck his head down inside. They had climbed all over and in the turret as the shuttle was ballistic but he had not bothered to take any measurements or bothered to compare what Mickey had shown him in the warehouse a couple days before to what was actually inside the turret. The cooling system was staring him in the face amongst all the other pieces of equipment packed into the turret with the coils along the back of the turret . Some how Somehow, in his excitement of just being inside the turret for the first time and going over everything else he was expecting to see, he had egnored ignored the little pipes and pumps for the cooling system.
“Ok Mickey. Why didn’t you catch this when we were going through the turret earlier?” When she did not answer he tried again. “Mickey! Why didn’t you see this? It is obvious what you showed me yesterday earlier is not what is in the turret. Close but not quit the same.” Staring past the breach block Mickey’s sensors measured the barrel tube with the cooling jacket in the slide ring and it was bigger by almost a half inch to allow for the cooling notches etched into the barrel with a thin tube over the outside machined smooth for the recoil slide where the gun barrel tube met the trunnion carriage. It was too close for Mar k to be sure without exact measurements he did not know how to do on his own yet . “Damn it Mickey. Will this barrel fit our gun mounts or not?” Mark closed the hatch. “Mickey answer me!”
“No. I don’t want to.”
“What? What do you mean you don’t want to?” Mark turned around and sat on the side edge of the turret with one leg propped up across the top dangling down into the still open hatch and the other dangling down the side of the turret . Looking at the tower in the distance and then the towers flanking both sides of them. All the towers were different but roughly the same tall narrow shape though the a towers to the sides were a lot little shorter than the tower ahead of them.
“I was busy.”
Mark noticed that the tower on the right was one solid block reaching for the sky while the one to the left was a lattice work of ribs with thousands upon thousands of modules attached around the ribs. Another one in the distance seemed to be platforms stacked one upon each other with a little space between each platform. “Busy doing what?” he said exasperated. Something popped on top of the other side of the turret from him, leaving a small streak on the turret top. He swatted at something small that streaked buzzing past his head as from another pockmark that appeared on the turret armor some 8 feet in front of Mark followed by a zing .
“I was mad at myself for endangering your life and making you mad at me.”
Mark started to say that he was ok. That he would probably forgive her as soon as he had time to calm down some more. Mark spotted He watched a jeep flitting toward them in a hurry as he heard a loud ping-zing and another pockmark appeared in the turret just on the other side of the hatch he was sitting half in next too . Something warbled as it streaked past the turret a few feet up and to the side.
Mark tried to figure out why some idiot in a copy of the military jeep he had driven the day before was driving so fast in their direction.
Mickey continued. “I cannot believe that I had you jump without thinking about it first. You could have been easily killed Mark and I am just realizing how stupid I was telling you to jump just because it was the only possible plan that would get you down to the shuttles before they left. But then if I had been monitoring the comm channels like I should have been instead of concentrating on trying to find that stupid sensor for you; I would have known that you had plenty of time and did not need to hurry.”
Something zinged past his head like a big bug as Mark waved his hand to shoo it away.
Mickey made a strange noise in his ears. “Then I did not find the flaw in the monofilament line until it was unwinding and then when you jammed the button locking the brake at the last few seconds, I cannot believe the line did not break as soon as it was over stressed but waited until after you had landed. And then it turned out that the suit barely managed to save you at the reduced velocity you did hit the hull at after locking the brake when you did. That if you had not locked the break and had hit at the velocity I had calculated as optimum; you would have broken half the bones in your body including your back. Certainly killing you since the upgrades I am making to you are far from finished. You ha ve d the right to be mad at me love. I did not understand how
so many things could go so wrong and did. I knew better but I was in such a hurry to show you how much I could help and love you that I forgot. It is a miracle that you are still alive love. I asked my judge to terminate me for almost killing you but it refused.”
Mark watched the grav jeep approaching , making a beeline straight for him. A bright light in the corner of his eye seemingly on the building's side that seemed to grow without moving , and disappear ed as a loud whistling warble whoosh sent a blast of air across his head blowing his hair into his eyes. “You! What? Terminate yourself?” A firefly streaked past over his head as another pockmark appeared in the turret's armor with a zing.
“No. The Judge would have terminated me. But don’t worry, your glasses would have continued to work with the computer manually controlled by you without me butting in to frick things up for you.”
“Ah.. You are not really a computer are you?” The turret turned a few degrees to face the right side of the tower with the barrel tube depressing to aim at something. His helmet suddenly formed up around his head from his collar. The gun boomed with the blast wave hitting him in his chest knocking him off the top of the turret out to land on the ground some dozen feet from the turret onto his butt and onto his back with is legs pointing up into the air. Slidding . Rolling to a stop s ome feet away, he sat up with his legs spread and his heels dug into the ground looking back at the turret . Surprised and shocked , Mark tried to figure out what the hell happened. .
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