Solomon Family Warriors II

by Robert H. Cherny

  Due to reasons of both protocol and practicality, the military and civilian personnel had used different loading ramps to enter the ship. The ramp the civilians had used had been disconnected an hour ago. This was the first time everyone on the ship had been gathered in one place.

  After a moment, Rachel took a deep breath and started to speak. “Over two decades ago five courageous women hijacked, or rather, drafted our father for a mission that made history. The ship they rode to the planet they would later name Homestead is a lot like the one that forms the center core of this ship. Twenty-nine people fled Earth expecting never to return. They were followed by other refugees seeking freedom from persecution. Half of these twenty-nine original settlers died in the battle to defend their home planet. Of the settlers that had followed that original group, many of them died in the same battle. My sister and I fought in that battle. The invading force was vanquished with almost total losses.

  “A few years later, my family was called upon to defend another planet from the same enemy. Again we prevailed. We lost ten people and five ships. They lost many more than that. Due to the advanced weapons we used, we were able to capture thousands of enemy combatants without excessive loss of life. It is my goal that the casualty ratios in any confrontation we may encounter will be like the latter and not like the former.”

  Rachel checked to see if she still had their attention. “We are over a hundred people short of our authorized staffing and yet we will embark on a mission that could as easily make history as the one our father embarked on as he fled from Earth. I do not wish to minimize the risk of our mission. What we are doing is dangerous. I will do everything I can to minimize that risk and I expect all of you to do the same. Always remember that our lives depend on all of us working together. The ships we are traveling in are not completely equipped or even totally assembled. As we travel, we will use the material in the holds to furnish and finish our living quarters and to equip the medical facilities. Folks, the sad fact is that space travel is boring. We will fill the time in transit building our ships. We will make them as mission ready as we can en-route to New St. Louis. I will send a courier missile ahead detailing our needs and I hope we will pick up staff and equipment there. From there we will travel to Eretz where I hope we will pick up the remainder of our staff and equipment.”

  “Ladies and Gentlemen, we leave in three quarters of an hour. The flight crews will check to see that all civilians are securely strapped into their seats for the transition to standard drive and then to hyper drive before securing themselves. We will travel in standard drive at low speed for two hours. We will accelerate in standard drive another two hours. Do not leave your flight seats during that time. I recommend you take a sedative if you are not familiar with space travel. We will jump into hyper drive four hours after we depart from the dock. Once we are established in hyper drive, I will make an announcement and I would like everyone to return here and be checked by the medical personnel. Not everyone takes the transition to hyper drive well and there are things that can be done to ease the transition. It’s that time, let’s go.”

  Rachel looked around and said to no one in particular, “and so it begins.”

  Rachel and the flight crew returned to the bridge. Their flight plan filed, the traffic controller cleared them for departure. One by one, the ship’s crew disconnected the cables and connections mating the ship with the shipyard’s support systems as they brought the ship’s internal systems on line in accordance with the pre-flight checklists. Finally, the only connection that remained between the shipyard and the ship was the access tube the military personnel had used to enter the spacecraft.

  The ship and its crew patiently waited for Captain Curra. Reuben’s former sparring partner, Marine Gunnery Sergeant Darius Black stood in his E V A suit inside the right hand side at the far end of the boarding tube that still attached the ship to the shipyard inside the tube’s airlock outer door. Rashi’s former sparring partner, Marine Gunnery Sergeant Lionel Sanford waited on the left side wearing his E V A suit. David’s former sparing partner, Marine Gunnery Sergeant Luther Townsend hung behind them in his EVA suit waiting to pass a large football to Faye Anne’s former sparring partner, Marine Gunnery Sergeant Janet Rivers and Wendy’s former sparring partner, Marine Gunnery Sergeant Patricia Hefner. Marine Lt. Suwanee Baxter – Abrams, Rachel’s former sparring partner and Reuben’s wife, stood by the airlock controls.

  Exactly sixty seconds before departure time, Captain Curra raced down the departure tube with two Space Force security officers hot on his heals. Like a well-oiled machine, the Marines sprung into action. Luther grabbed the captain by his belt and collar and tossed him mightily up the loading tube. He then raced to follow. The catchers on the other end of the tube grabbed the captain and tossed him through the ship’s inner airlock door. As soon as they were all clear, Lt. Baxter closed the inner airlock door. Sergeants Sanford and Black fended off the pursuing security officers and pushed them back inside the safety of the station’s airlock. As soon as the security officers, who were not wearing vacuum suits, were clear of the station’s airlock doors, Darius manually slammed the airlock doors shut sealing the station from the boarding tube. Once Suwanee called that the inner airlock door was closed, the two Marines at the end of the tube disengaged the tube from the station, but not from the ship. Their tethers kept them from blowing out to space along with the air in the tube.

  As soon as Rachel heard that the tube had been disconnected from the station, she engaged the engines and the ship started to move. Using electric winches attached to the tethers, Sergeant Townsend reeled his two buddies back up the tube. Once all three were safely inside the confines of the airlock, they released the access tube to float away and be picked up by a salvage crew. They closed the outer airlock door. After the pressure had equalized, they opened the inner air lock door, opened the helmets on their E V A suits and headed for their stations to strap in for the transition into hyper drive. The three female Marines carried an exhausted Captain Curra to his quarters where he fell asleep before they finished strapping him in.

  Within minutes of departure, they received an angry message from Station Security demanding that they return to port.

  “Station Security, this is Captain Solomon of the Federation Space Force Hospital Ship 28 Albert Schweitzer. I acknowledge your request that we return to port. Given the volume of traffic in this area it would be unsafe to turn this large a ship at this time. I will endeavor to return when I have sufficient area around my ship to do so safely.”

  “Roger that, Captain Solomon. You will have sufficient clearance in ten minutes at your current course and speed.”

  “Acknowledged. Might I inquire as to the condition of the two officers who attempted to stow away on my ship and were sent back at the last moment?”

  “Ahem, the two officers suffered minor bruises. They were not trying to stow away. They were trying to apprehend Captain Curra.”

  “Acknowledged.” Rachel closed the ship-to-ship comm.

  Rachel keyed her personal comm, “Suwanee, what’s Grant’s status?”

  “Sleeping like a baby,” Suwanee chuckled.

  “10-4, thanks.”

  “Incoming open communication,” Faye Anne reported.

  “Not encrypted?”

  “Nope.”

  “Who’s it from?”

  “Commodore McGuire”

  “Put it on the speakers.”

  “Commodore, it’s good to hear from you! I have you on speaker so everyone on the bridge can hear you.”

  “Captain, I wanted to wish you and your crew a safe and successful voyage. Please keep us here at home informed of your progress.”

  “Roger that!”

  “I have a surprise for you.”

  David’s voice came over the speakers, “Hey gang, are you all there on the bridge?”

  “Most of us are. The Marines are off being Marines.”

  “When I first heard you were leaving w
ithout me, I was hurt. I called Commodore McGuire to see if he could change your mind, but he refused. He explained why you and he thought I should stay here. I still wish I could go with you, but I understand your thinking. Promise me that when I finish law school you’ll come back for me.”

  “David, you have a home on any ship I command,” Rachel replied. “Finish school first.”

  Wendy shouted out, “How’s Boston? You meeting lots of exciting women?”

  “I’ve been too busy to have much of a social life,” David replied.

  “Shame on you!” Wendy shouted back. “You should be partying up a storm with all those good looking college girls!”

  David laughed, “Boston is the ultimate college town. That’s for sure.”

  “When we get back I don’t want to hear that you have been cloistered in the library for your entire time,” Faye Anne warned. “I will have my spies reporting on you.”

  “No doubt! Have a safe voyage and when we get together I want to hear the stories.”

  “Roger that!”

  The bridge was eerily quiet after David disconnected.

  The ship proceeded slowly though the traffic around the shipyard. Hundreds of small ships clogged the space around the resurrected battleship. Entire fleets of well wishers flashed their running lights in gestures of good will. The old ship gradually accelerated as the numbers of small sightseeing craft surrounding the ungainly monster shrank and the path out of the system cleared ahead of them.

  For the four hours it took for the ship to reach one G of acceleration in standard drive, there were too many small sightseeing craft for the ship to safely turn around. The traffic controllers attempted valiantly to clear the traffic but finally gave up. Captain Grant Curra had escaped them yet again. As soon as the space around the ship cleared enough to do so, Rachel engaged the hyper drive and the mission began.

  Rachel gradually increased the acceleration to one G of hyper drive. Even though the ship had passed its basic flight trials, it had not been thoroughly tested and Rachel was being conservative. “Reuben, can we go any faster than one G? This trip is going to be forever long.”

  “Patience, my dear Captain,” Reuben replied. “Rashi and I inspected the space frame along with Space Flight Engineering Specialist Five, Trucks while we were still in the yard. Do we have time for a little physics lesson?”

  “We have all day,” Rachel sighed.

  “The four ships that were assembled to make the Albert Schweitzer were stacked end for end. The drive units were removed and arrayed at the after end. The structure holding the four drive units together is well designed and strong. We have no concerns there. Immediately forward of the drive units the space frame consists of four large trusses providing separation between the propulsion unit and the aft end of the cargo bays from the old cargo ship. Removing the cargo ship’s crew quarters and bridge module reduced the mass of the cargo ship by about ten percent. More of the cargo ship could have been removed, but we would have lost its docking ports. The four P I ships and the two destroyers dock to the cargo ship.”

  “I know all this.”

  “Hang in with me. We’re not in a race. The old passenger ship is attached ahead of the cargo ship. Since its bridge was redundant, it was removed. The space separating the propulsion unit from the body of the ship was also redundant and it was removed. That reduced that ship’s mass by thirty percent. The four pickets and whatever personnel shuttles we might need will use the passenger ship’s docks. In fact, it was the need for docking ports and not cabin space that drove the inclusion of the passenger ship into the plan.”

  “You still haven’t told me how fast we can go.”

  “I’m getting there. The hospital ship’s bridge was removed and the redundant structure behind the body of the ship was removed. Unfortunately, the spinning operating rooms that adjust to accommodate the direction of the simulated gravity are heavy. The hospital ship even with all the unneeded parts removed masses as much as the passenger liner did before it was stripped. Add the med-evac ships and their docks and things start to get heavy forward. Now we come to the most massive part of all. The battleship with its armor and its munitions is the heaviest component. Even with the massive structure of the drive units for balance, the center of mass of this ship is further forward than is normally the practice. This makes the ship difficult to maintain on course.”

  “We know this.”

  “Yes. In addition, all the stress of the force of the drives pushing the ship is translated to the space frame at a point just aft of the cargo ship. The cargo ship was designed to sustain four G’s of acceleration under full load. There is some safety factor, but not as much as I would like. More than one G with all the mass ahead of it and the space frame may bend. A ship with a bent space frame is almost impossible to control. This ship carries four times as much mass as the cargo ship. Even with all the reinforcing that was done to the space frame aft of the cargo ship, we are concerned that acceleration greater than one G will cause the space frame to bend or break either just aft or just forward of the cargo ship. That is an eventuality none of us wishes to contemplate.”

  “You win. Helmsman! Plot a course for one G to New St. Louis.” Rachel looked around the bridge and grinned. “Oh! I am the helmsman. Well then, Aye, Aye Captain! Plotting a course for one G for New St. Louis.” Her little joke earned a few polite chuckles.

  DEPLOYMENT - CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  THE TRIP TO NEW ST LOUIS took three months. During that time the combined talents of the military and civilian personnel were deployed to incorporate the “acquired” material to make the ship as functional as possible.

  Rachel, Wendy and Faye Anne rotated command on the bridge. The destroyer flight crews and the civilian pilots filled out the remainder of the bridge positions. Fortunately, the ship’s navigation was highly automated and needed little monitoring. Captain Curra supervised the engineering and support crews who spent the majority of their time testing and programming the sensor and weapons systems. They were particularly concerned about integrating the new lasers and defenses added to the cargo ship. The intent was these devices would protect the after portion of the ship from attack while the battleship’s normal defenses would protect the forward areas. The main goal of the project was to link the sensor arrays and the lasers to take advantage of the parallax gained by the length of the ship and the distance between the devices.

  The medical personnel, the remainder of the military personnel, the Marines and even the passengers, worked around the clock to make the ship as ready as possible for its eventual mission. Working in and on a ship traveling in hyper drive presented its own problems. In the shipyard, weightlessness had allowed them to move large items easily. The simulated gravity caused by the ship’s constant acceleration provided a more familiar work environment in that “down” meant something. The steady low vibration from the engines that permeated the ship and radiated out from its structural center core was the issue. Carrying heavy loads in the confined spaces of the ship’s passageways was difficult enough in the freedom of weightlessness and would have been merely difficult in normal gravity, but the vibration in the floor made walking less steady. Due to the extreme care needed to install the medical equipment, the work progressed slowly.

  As they approached New St. Louis, Rachel called her flight crews together. Her only combat ships were the two destroyers that Wendy had brought with her. Even those were not the ships she was supposed to bring, but a slightly more advanced newer version. Wendy had “accidentally” brought the “wrong” ships. The P I ships and pickets that had been promised had not been delivered. Rachel knew where two of the P I ships were coming from, but the source of the remainder of the ships remained a mystery. They had been so busy getting the ship ready that they had made no attempt to even determine what was wrong with the shuttle Captain Curra had commandeered let alone try to fix it.

  Rachel gathered the ship’s personnel not on duty in the galley. “Ladies and Gent
lemen, we are three days out of New St. Louis. We will drop out of hyper drive shortly. We have many reasons for doing this, not the least of which is that we need to test the transition from hyper to standard drive somewhere well away from inhabited space. The second is that I would like to enter the system in a way that will provide us an exercise for entering a hostile system. I will send a courier ahead. Admiral Linda Dankese, the station’s commander, is a family friend. I am requesting that she assist us in a combat exercise. The courier will also detail our personnel and equipment needs. We will deploy the two destroyers while we are in standard drive. Once we receive an acknowledgment that Admiral Dankese is willing to assist us in this exercise, we will proceed to New St. Louis. I expect that this stop will add two days to our travel time, but the delay will help us prepare for our formal mission. This will be a training exercise. We will make it as realistic as possible, but it will be an exercise. Our Tactical Officer, Lt. Cho Mae Chin, will detail your roles in the exercise. I apologize that you have not had time to practice this in the simulators, but this will give us a good idea of what our strengths and weaknesses are. Lt. Chin, please.”

  Lt. Chin, a tiny woman who looked like she might blow away in the slightest breeze, stepped up. She explained the intended plan and briefed everyone what to expect from the exercise. The majority of the civilians and medical personnel were to stand by in the galley where the monitors on the galley walls would simulcast the bridge combat displays. In the event that the ship suffered “casualties”, the medical personnel would be dispatched from there.

  The ship dropped out of hyperspace and Rachel dispatched the courier. Isaac supervised the sterilization of the operating suites. Few contagions can survive the cold and vacuum of space. The operating suites were designed to be able to be opened to space and allowed to cool. The resulting slowly developing ice crystals would internally shred any bacteria or small insects that lurked in the hidden recesses as the organisms froze. After twenty-four hours at super cold temperatures, the suites were closed, warmed and treated with traditional disinfectants and cleaners.