Battleship Destroyer (114 page)

Ja
ck spent the next 20 minutes making arrangements to evacuate yet another alien ship. "At least this time we don't have to take it deck by deck then run for our lives. You have the conn." He said to the Exec. As he got out of his chair and stretched without his suit on. "Let's get the Assault shuttles underway so we can take care of the transports." At the hatch Jack patted the Ensign on the shoulder. "I want you to go with the marines so you can look into the ship before they board. I don't want to lose anyone if…" (Captain leaving the bridge) Jack stared at the rating for a second. "If it turns out to be a trap." Jack gave the rating that made the announcement standing next to the hatch a dirty look as he left.

In the tank with the hull hatch open into the God Assault Shuttle Jack stopped the marine Commander
with the Red Ape Gutner Dank. "You both make sure the Ensign makes it back here in one peace or don’t come back.  She can see into the ship like we did before. Use and believe her if she says there is a problem." Jack took a deep breath shaking his head. "Priority are crewmen and then food, weapons and equipment if you don't think we have samples of it already." Thinking for a second. "Oh and raw materials such as the gas they are using to grow the crystal material to rebuild the ship and guns. Then there is that damn torpedo we have been dodging for the last week. Good luck and no risk taking period. The ship will be a good half hour away if something happens so make sure you don't stick your necks out and keep a secure base to work from. It is going to take us time to get back here to support you if anything happens. Keep the Transport boats at a safe distance until you are ready for them and then I only want one of them on the ship at a time and then only long enough to load and leave. Except for scouts, I don’t want you spreading your forces around. A scattered force is a dead force." After making them repeat the orders, Jack turned and left without looking back.

Jack walked back onto the bridge pointing at the rating at the hatch daring him
to say anything. "I just left a couple minutes ago and now I am back already alright." Jack said in a low voice not wanting to disturb anyone from their work and headed for the Command chair with the Exec in it. Figuring he would rather stand for a few minutes and relaxing before he took over the conn again when they headed for the other transports.

A Lieutenant across the bridge turned around seeing Jack approaching the command
chair with a cup of hot steaming tea in his hand blowing on it to cool it down to drink. The Lieutenant came to attention in his seat and practically yelled.  “Captain on the bridge.”

The Executive officer jumped up colliding with Jack and his cup of hot tea splashing it all over the two of them and the consoles around them. Including down the back of the First Officer piloting the ship at the moment
in his nice clean pressed fresh uniform after shucking his suit as well.

The ship did a spontaneous 360 degree roll in about a half second at ful
l power as the First Officer jerked the stick to the side from the sudden unexpected pain running down his neck and back. Jack and the Exec went flying across the Bridge landing on top of different officers at their consoles as the grav-coils lagged a millionth of a second behind.

The
First Officer grimaced as he quickly stabilized the ship as he arched his back trying to keep the hot whatever it was soaking the back of his uniform from touching his already burnt back.

Jack and the Exec. Picked themselves up off the consoles and deck.

“Comm. Casualty reports. ASAP. Turning and seeing that the First Officer seemed to be alright. “Number One, are you Ok?”

“More surprised than anything and wet sir.”

“Well, you can go change when the First Officer returns
.
Turn the helm over to the navigator.”

“Captain, a few crewmen shaken up along the core but the crew outside the core did not even feel the roll.”

“Figures, more coils that were not tuned right.”

It took another 20 minutes before the assault Shuttles were ready. Jack using that time to change uniforms again and get the bridge cleaned back up as well as another cup of tea. This time not saying or looking at the rating at the hatch when “Captain on the Bridge.” Was announced.

"Captain, Assault Shuttles away. Transports launching in one minute."

"Very well boat control.
Exec, I want the Port section gun crews at their mounts just in case they run into any surprises. Rotate sections in a half hour."

"Captain, Comm, the Squadron Commander is on the line."

"This is Captain Turner, Commodore. My ship will be in your area in a half hour to assist in rescue operations.  What are your orders sir?"

"
Very good shooting Captain. I did not believe it was possible but you got lucky. Too bad you did not show up earlier. We are abandoning all three ships Captain Turner. You will pick us up for transport to The Rock."

"Ah
... What? Commodore, tie me in with your command channel. I need all three ships conditions to plan transfer operations."

The
Commodore turned away from the screen for a few seconds and then information started flooding in. He turned back. "Captain Turner, we have 5 boats left amongst the squadron to use as shuttles between our ships and you to speed things up."

Jack studied the information and got a shock. He was expecting three ships that were mostly hulks. Instead he was seeing two ships that were hardly damaged and only one complete wreck. "Commodore, two of your transports still have a working engine with only relatively minor damage to most of their systems including life support even though you have been holed
through and through half your cargo decks."

"That does not mater Captain. We cannot out run the enemy fleet rapidly approaching and you can. I don't know h
ow you manage to travel so fast in this cloud soup but you will take us aboard and get us to safety."

Jack could not believe his ears. Shaking his head with a frown he took a deep breath and
finally said. "No Commodore. You still have two ships that can navigate and in this cloud one engine is more power than you can use with the limited velocities our ships can do. You will use your boats to strip the hulk." Jack studied the map of the clear surveyed rout through the nebula clouds.  "Commodore, I am going to punch you a way through this maze of clouds to a relative strait highway beyond. It will cut 7 hours off the time it would take you to make the same distance where you will be able to out run the enemy fleet. It will take me about an hour to return while you are rescuing the crew and striping the hulk. Then I will run back and rescue the transport crew that you left in your wake and then join you later. Are there any questions Commodore?"

"No Captain. I am ordering you to pick up my crews from these ships and leave. The ship we had to leave behind is just a casualty of war."

"Sorry Commodore but I don't see it that way. I will make sure that your two ships can escape but we are going back for that crew. That is unless you want me to go back first but that may take a couple hours and then I will still have to punch a hole through the maze giving the enemy fleet time they may be able to use to follow and catch you." Jack looked at the shocked Commodore for several seconds as his mouth opened and closed. "Take plan A Commodore." Jack cut the connection.

"Comm, get me the Ensign and the Marine Commander." Tapping the comm on his chair's arm. Boat
lock control, prepare as many boats as you can find pilots for, for launch in 5. They will be needed to transfer cargo from the transport hulk to the other two transports to speed things up and then they can go over to the enemy hulk and start loading for when we return." Jack started plotting a course on the navigation screen.

"Captain, the Marine Commander and Ensign."

Smiling as the Ensign came on the line. "Sorry but there is going to be a delay before we can start transferring cargo and we are not going to be around close for at least an hour so be careful over there. I am having to drill an escape route through the maze. I am launching all the ship’s other boats that we can to help here and later for you and we will be back as soon as possible."

"Don’t' worry Captain, we have things well in hand over
here even though the two Assault Shuttles docked only minutes ago. We have already taken most of the ship including the Auxiliary Bridge below the fusion cores so we have control of all the ship’s internal sensors. We have also found plenty of boat sized storage containers that we can pack while you are gone for fast easy transfer when you return."

"Very good Commander. Especially with the Auxiliary Bridge. Make sure you strip it of everything you can cut out. The Comm equipment, navigation logs and maps are priceless. Captain out." Jack let a smile escape his lips
briefly. "Number One, as soon as the boats are away you will have some fancy maneuvering to do. Take a look at the plot and if you want, I will do it." Jack tapped the comm again and started issuing orders getting the ship ready for drilling the longest tunnel they had yet attempted.

As soon as the last boat was away the Red Pepper slid up next to the
squadron and then powered back down the long stretch of clear area and plunged into the cloud going back toward open space and the closing enemy fleet. They punched a hole thousands of miles long ending in the middle of a thick cloud where the ship finally stopped already pointing in the direction they wanted to go back through the tunnel.

Jack looked at the screens around him as the tunnel they had just drilled stretched out ahead of them
through the cloud. "Ok Number One. Give it all she has."

The First Officer eased the throttles fo
rward to their maximum stops as the Red Pepper quickly accelerated up to 1200 Gees rapidly gaining velocity down the open tunnel as the ships guns flashed at intruding rocks and debris.

The ship zipped
through the clear area flashing past the Spider hulk and the squadron and then the Red Pepper suddenly turned tail to and started punching another tunnel through the clouds. This time away from the enemy fleet still hours away and slowing down trying to catch them.

For twenty minutes Jack sat back trying to look and act like a Captain even though he wanted to get up and run around the bridge just to get rid of the energy boiling up in him. Instead he settl
ed for ordering tea and a snack. Finely having time to enjoy being out of his suit. He always felt like he was in an open field on some planet breathing in the best fresh air in the universe each time he got out of his suit after a long stay closed up. The fact that it was still the same canned ship's air as always did not matter.

"Captain, Engineering, the hull temp is up to 4,000 degrees and with 20% of the cooling fins missing and another 10% damaged, equipment and cabin temps are going up faster than we predicted."

Jack looked at the navigation screen. They were still 10 minutes from entering the clear. "We already have shut down every heat source not needed. What do you want to do Chief?"

"
We are going to have to start shutting down some of the essential equipment. We can shut down the old generators. They produce 10 times the heat as the new plasma generators. Fact is Captain the plasma generators are even 10 times more efficient than the old radiation and thermal cell generators."

"The plasma generators are brand new tech Chief, we have only
been using them for a few minutes now. You sure you want to shut down the cell generators. We don't know yet what can go wrong or the possible draw backs they may have."

"The Engines are still on cell generators using the fusion cores as their energy sources. We face little risk from most possible failures with the cell
generators still on standby in case they are needed Captain. But you should see the plans for the new fusion generators we and the aliens have come up with. They are smaller and will produce twice the power using coils around the case with a spinning fusion core like the old mechanical spinning magnet generators used thousands of years ago. Fact is as soon as we have time to shut down one of the engines for a while I would like your permission to convert our main engine fusion cores by stripping off the cells and adding the new super conducting coils to both start spinning the core and tap power off of it. The power output possible could double our Gees again."

"Well now Chief. Aren’t you forgetting something like the deck grav
coils? They are at their max now. I don't think we could double up on the Gees again without changing them as well."

"Oh yes. I will have to give that some thought but I would still like to convert at least one engines Core to test the principle Captain."

"That we can do when we have the time. For now just start shutting down the Cell Generators and keep a close eye on the new Plasma Coil Generators and switch back at the first sign of trouble." Jack continued starring at the Nav screen for another few seconds and turned to the navigator. "I want you to plot a course through that next short cloud past the last switchback clearing that takes off at an angle. If we can add enough velocity to the velocity we will still have exiting this cloud while changing course in that short clear area before hitting the next  cloud, we can add another hour to the squadrons distance from the enemy fleet in only a few minutes."