Battleship Destroyer (3 page)

In another time and place, if he had been even a little outspoken, he would have been accused of being on drugs or crazy and stuffed into a mental asylum.  But he had long ago learned not to express too much detail about what he could see, as he took it for granted that everyone around him could see what he saw and just did not want to listen to an idiot talking about the obvious. They just were not interested in anything the moron had to say about the subject or most subjects for that matter.

That is except for his grandfather
Pop, who simply smiled and grinned at his occasional strange comments about what he could see. Telling him that a Neutron star had made him special. But then Pop was just a crazy half senile old man, even if he was supposed to be a genius. Besides, special was what most planets called children born with deformities and mental handicaps. So he figured it fit. After all, his brother and parents were always telling him how stupid he was. Including his grandfather when they were arguing about some point of physics or some theory as Jack tried to understand the universe around him. Though, unlike his family and everyone else on the ship, Pop did not consider Stupid as a permanent condition or that the recipient was even wrong. Unbeknownst to others, once in a while, Pop was talking about himself when he made the statement after Jack had pointed out an idea or point of fact he had forgotten or never thought of during one of their arguments.

One thing Jack
was sure of was that he could do calculations in his head faster than most people and even the computer auto pilot sometimes. With the spatial references seeming to just pop into his head like it had just done a few minutes before after noticing a few things like the ship's speed, thrust vector, air density and the strength of gravity around and ahead of the ship. It also allowed him to run the grav board, knowing how much power to add or subtract to what wave, from what direction, where on the ship and when, to counter act the movements of the ship and the fields around it before the passengers felt the ship go bump in the sky or even sway.

Jack took a deep breath shaking his head.
What really pissed him off about getting chewed out in front of everyone was that he should have known better by now. The bridge crew was already looking at him even though it was not his mistake but they had heard him being chastised and that was enough. After all, it could not possible be Pop's mistake and they had seen Jack helping plot the course earlier, even if all he was doing was trying to learn how to navigate. "When was he, the moron, going to learn navigation or simply give up and quit causing trouble?" He had heard it all before, way too many times. Which is why he was stuck on the bridge at the Grav board during take offs and landings.

He
was 13 when the ships navigation system's main power supply and all its backups had failed during launch, (a critical piece of equipment) sending the ship out of control. Jack had seen and felt the massive waves of energy the burning power supply was giving off before it finally blew from the children's acceleration couches at school and knew that fire was disastrous aboard ship. He had left the class acceleration couch room with the instructors screaming at him to sit back down though not one followed or tried to stop him. He was half way to the bridge as the ship took a nose dive. With the bridge screaming to get the power to the navigation system back on. It only took Jack a few seconds to get to the power distribution compartment on the deck below the bridge. Then to realize that the hot slagged missing section of cable leading from the burned out power supply must be what was wrong with the navigation system everyone was yelling about. It only took a few seconds more to jerk out a cold piece of wire elsewhere and short around the burned, blown and dead mains, holding the wire in place long enough for the ship to make orbit before being found with his hands still in the 4,000 volt power panel.

Jack never could figure out how he could have, let alone how anyone could believe
, he had destroyed the hundred pound enclosed, hundred year old power supply, not to mention the already rusted, corroded, junk backups that failed to work, but they did. Though the power supplies on all the important equipment across the ship were replaced and upgraded in short order. Jack getting the jobs of hauling the old rusted junk backups out of the ship while the old working power supplies were put into storage just in case they were needed.

To keep him out of
any further trouble, his father had stuffed him in the Grav board trim station that had not had an operator sitting at it since Pop had bought the ship some 30 years before, like a jail sentence for a criminal. It was Jack reading the manuals with a lot of help from Pop that taught himself how to operate the gravcoil station just to keep from dying of boredom.

E
ver since then he had yet to miss a takeoff or landing on the bridge to keep him from destroying anything else. While the whole crew seemed to start treating him different, strangely different after that. Like he had done something terribly wrong and was now responsible for everything else that went wrong on the ship. He was still being blamed five years later and the story told with embellishments as he was pointed out to anyone new boarding the ship before they finished their first meal. He was fair game for punishment by anyone and everyone, anytime with no repercussions from his family. Especially with his brother encouraging the entire ship to participate. So he avoided everyone as much as he could. Taking refuge in playing (The Battleship Crew Simulator Game), in his cabin every chance he got.

Jack
watched the gravity waves ahead lighten and made a minor adjustment to the gravity board as they left the high mountain plateau half of the planet behind. Avoiding that little imperceptible sway in his head most people would have only vaguely notice if they noticed at all. He was even ready when the ship hit the jet stream as he made the adjustments long before the automatic controls could respond, so the passengers did not feel the ship lurch from the 300 mile an hour side wind suddenly hitting the ship. He was even ready as his brother jerked the stick over much too hard to crab into the wind a second too late. Jack making the adjustments before the autograv could. Then again when they left the stream and his brother was late again straightening the ship back up and had to waddle the ship back onto their landing plot line with enough movement, (now that they were deep inside the atmosphere), to make anyone space sick if Jack had not caught and counter acted the side to side, up and down swaying as his brother jerked the ship around. Jack had gotten very good at his job. Though no one felt or had a clue as he played the gravity board like an instrument. Looking out of the bridges viewports at the vague beautiful impressions of clouds of energy swirling around the ship in a dozen different shades and brightness's of color he had no name for that would skew the ship off course, while keeping an eye on his brother stabbing at the ships controls.  He ignored the jumble of harsh comparatively black and white and off colored waves and lines on his screens in front of him showing the pilot's and autopilots control inputs and the ship's sensors attempt to represent the fields outside the ship so humans could see and understand the invisible and respond properly. To Jack, the screens were a half second to slow, even if they could have shown a fraction of everything Jack could see.

T
hey finally dropped down a bit hard into the pit as he flicked his fingers across the gravity board to counter act the sudden 3 gee landing gear flexing stop as they hit the concrete a little fast, straining the landing shocks. Then he faded the ships gravity into the planet's before shutting the grav board down. His cup of tea sitting on the console next to him had never even swayed let alone slopped a drop. The ships felt Gee meter had stayed pegged at 1.000 Gee the whole descent with zero side forces. Satisfied with his job, Jack leaned back and took a breath of satisfaction as he let his mind wind down for a few seconds after the strain. Already planning on getting onto The Game so he could talk to his friend that was already sitting in a pit as he rubbed his eyes and temple to relieve the tension.

A hand slapped the back of Jack
's head as his brother turned around from the Pilot’s Cockpit. “Hey I was talking to you." His brother looked at him irritated for a second then smiled. "You just work hard crap face and some day you can land a ship as good as I do." Dan chuckled. "Like you could ever pilot a ship and pigs could fly.” Dan started laughing as he turned back to his controls while they waited for the ground crew to anchor the ship down.

Lookin
g forward to getting off duty and back into The Battleship Game, Jack ignored him and tried to decide what mission he wanted to volunteer for. Though he knew The Game controlled what was offered. He knew there had been growing Pirate activity in his sector for a few days now.  He mussed to himself as he ignored his brother. Jack already knew he could land the ship better than his brother. He had done it a thousand times in The Game. He thought he had recognized Tom's ship as they dropped the last few thousand feet into the pit making him smile with the reassurance of his buddy being dirt side and probably waiting for him. He had talked to Tom only hours before as they approached the planet while making arrangements to meet him later to celebrate both of their recent 18th birthdays.

All Tom could talk about f
or months, (each time they managed to hit a port together or close enough for the accessional game in space as the ships crossed paths), was going to some titty bar for a couple of drinks to celebrate as soon as they were 18. Jack was getting intrigued with the idea even though he was much too apprehensive (scared of getting caught or noticed and ridiculed) to ever go near one on his own. All Jack needed to do was waste a few hours now the work day was done and then when the quarter deck hatch opened for liberty after the Lobster and Steak dinner his father had been bragging about all week, join Tom for some fun.

"
Guess what you get to do now?" His brother turned around slapping Jack on his shoulder with a big smile. It wasn't what Jack wanted to hear or see at that moment. His brother’s smile always meant bad news for him.

-----------------

Hours later, Jack walked out of the auxiliary machinery space hatch and headed for the elevator wiping himself with a rag. Trying to get the last of the rinse water off after washing the shit off his air and water tight Jumpsuit.  The Jumpsuit was required for landings and take offs and or when the ship was at emergency stations.  It only needed him to pull the collapsible helmet folded into his collar around his neck, up over his head and down onto its caller seal and then stuff his hands into two special pockets for skin tight gloves to automatically seal with his cuffs, to keep him alive in vacuum in case of an emergency decompression in space. The fabric breathed moisture from his body under normal air pressure while being air and water proof as well as regulating his body’s temperature by either insulating, radiating or absorbing heat when it was needed.

The
permeable fabric also let carbon dioxide through, while retaining the larger oxygen atoms in a vacuum, allowing prolonged use in an emergency. As long as the wearer had access to oxygen, the CO’2 would escape through the fabric into the vacuum of space, keeping the wearer from dying of CO’2 poisoning. He had kept the jump suit on while doing the nasty job his brother had assigned him knowing it not only provided him the protection he needed but would be easy to clean off and sanitize afterwards with a quick shower. Jack hurried along the passageway toward the Quarterdeck and the elevator, thinking about The Game as he tapped his wrist comm to call his friend Tom and tell him he would be on The Game in a few minutes.

"Just where the hell do
you think you are going jerk?" Jack looked up at his brother Dan walking down the curved passageway from the Quarter deck area surrounding the elevators and gangplank, headed for him shaking his head in disgust. "Just stop right there shit head." His brother said holding out his hand palm out to stop Jack from getting far enough around the bend in the passageway to be seen by anyone on the Quarter deck while staying as far away from him as possible.

Jack could hear his father's voice thanking yet another passenger for flying with the Turner Joy and giving such a generous tip, echoing down the passageway. "I just finished cleaning that plugged sewage separator you sent me to fix and I am going up to get a shower before dinner." He did not say anything about The Game knowing his brother would ridicule him about it and even possible make up a job for him to do just to keep him off of it. "Is that OK with you? First Officer Creep."

A couple of
familiar crewmen came down the passageway from the Auxiliary Engineering hatch and squeezed past Jack hugging the bulkhead to keep from touching him. "You stink, get out of the way shithead." Wrinkling up their noses.  Then as they passed his brother one of them patted Dan on the back with a tissue in his hand as they met in the passageway. Leaving a brown colored streak of clumps of grease or something on the back of his bright white uniform.  "Where's your gas mask Mr. Turner?" Chuckling.  "No wonder you did not mind loosing that bet at cards last night. You're not the one that was going to do the work. I should have known better." Then started walking away. "As if you would actually do some work. I should have made you come up with something in addition to the job to cover my bet since you were not doing the work."  Laughing as the guy dropped the tissue a ways down the passageway before they disappeared around the bend of the hull into the Quarter deck and elevator compartment. It should have been their job but now he knew why they had sat back laughing and making nasty rude remarks more than usual as he worked.