Battleship Destroyer (34 page)

"It is about time you two made it up here. Did you see something wr
ong with the installation?" Captain Halsey from the Red Dwarf said from her Command Chair.

"What?" Jack said puzzled.

"You took so long under the ship. I thought you must have spotted something.  Did you?"

"Ah…  Nothing too interesting." Jack turned around looking at everything
and anything but the Captain trying to hide his embarrassment and landed on the pilot’s cockpit a ways in front of the Captain. Walking up to the pilot's position he suddenly wished he could be sitting there, surrounded by controls that would make the million gross ton ship perform anything he wanted with a light touch. Three dimensional screens able to see the universe around the ship for light years or a person on their landing pit from orbit, circled the pilot. Jack studied every minute detail of the pilots somewhat too familiar position. Trying to figure out what had to be different from all the equipment and controls that looked like they were right off the bridge of his ship from, "The Game". Disbelief building in him by the second.

If he had been looking
at the Turner Joy’s civilian tramp ship’s simple austere pilot's position he could not have been more surprised.

"Then let's get this show on the road.
" The Captain hit an icon on her chair's arm. "Prepare to launch ship. Seal the ship. Evacuate the lock." Turning back to Jack. "First class Turner, take the assistant engineers console to monitor your engine please. Though we won't be lighting it off for a while yet. The Engineering Chief is in Central Engineering Control. You have a direct connection to him on your board. You might want to run some checks on your engine while you are waiting. It would be nice to know if something was wrong with it before we cycled out of the Red Dwarf."

"Ship sealed. Positive pressure in the ship Captain." A voice said from the far side of the bridge.

"Lock evacuated Captain." Came another voice.

"Very well. Release all
bow mooring clamps. All hands! Prepare for platform extension."

Jack sat down in the Assistant
's Engineering console as the bridge woke up with a constant coria graphed barrage of reports and orders getting the ship ready for launch. Used to a simpler version on the bridge of his family's tramp transport ship the Turner Joy, he ignored most of it as he started running tests on the engine that had been converted. The fact that the ship’s check list mirrored his check list for getting under way in "The Game", Started nagging at him. He kept finding himself mouthing the next items on the check list before it was read while trying to tell himself he was not in, The Game.

"Check platform clamps and locks. Release stern mooring clamps." Came the Captain's voice.

The Ensign sat down in the jump console next to him, punching up the engineering suit for it. Jack looked over at her. "I signed up to be a Battleship Pilot not a frigging propulsion nerd tech or a Gravtech for that matter." He said bitterly as he glanced at the all too familiar pilots’ position.

"Join the party." The ensign said with a
half-smile. "So did I and look wear they put me. One of my friends got stuck in propulsion engineering on the St. Mary and one got supply on this bucket. At least the third, Marg got what she wanted in medical though she was through her 4th year to become a Doctor." She frowned. "Maybe we are the lucky ones unless your conversion works to give the fleet a chance."

The ship lurched to one side as it reached the end of the ramps travel
and came to a sudden lurching stop but the bow they were in some 2,000 feet above continued to sway for a few seconds. Jack looked around for the Gravtech that should have caught the lurch as well as the swaying. "Godstar Grav, get your head out of your ass." Jack said without thinking then realized where he was and looked around embarrassed and went back to checking the engines as he ducked his head trying to hide.

The Captain stared at him for several seconds. She had started to say something to the Grav tech herself but Jack's outburst
had cut her off. Turning back forward she went back to the check list. "Single up platform launch clamps." The Captain said. And then after the main clamps were confirmed off she said. "Pilot, you can launch when ready. Take up a position 100 miles from and parallel to the Red Dwarf."

Jack watched the power meters on the
unmodified engine increase until the weight of the ship registered well into the negative and then the pilot hit the launch clamp release Icon. "Ship away Captain." The ship soared out away from the Red Dwarf and settled into the designated position a few minutes later. The one running engine was at almost full power just to keep up with the Red Dwarf, but then she still had full mass tanks.

"Engineering; you may commence tests on number one engine when ready."

"Eye Captain. Test when ready." The Chief Engineer said.

Jack concentrated on
the test engine as power was introduced to it and it burped. "Wooa. I am getting an anomaly here." Hitting the comm to the Chief. "Are you seeing the anomaly I am seeing Chief?"

"
Anomaly? Mr. Turner; that is not an anomaly, these engines always do that on start up. You would have seen the same thing if you had been watching start up on the unmodified engines. Didn't you ever get down to the Red Dwarf's engine rooms, even they do it and they are considerable bigger? This class of engines always burp a little at idle no matter the size. The Red Dwarf's engines have been known to shoot plasma out of the throat for a thousand miles when they burp at startup. Then smooth out at thrust. Evidentially it is something to do with the technology and not the designed components according to the best minds."

Jack felt like crawling under the chair. "Sorry Chief
, I always had my nose stuck in the grav department." Even while shame washed over him at not knowing about something he could not have known, the feeling of something wrong persisted as it burped again. "The converted engine should not be doing that unless something was not right someplace." Jack said to himself as the engine started burping one after another. "Something that gets covered up at higher throttle settings on the normal engines with massive amounts of reaction mass, but on an engine designed to run on even less mass than what a normal engine uses at idle; it could be very destructive." The Engine burps started growing more rapid and violent.

The Ensign suddenly reached over and slapped the red cut off button as the reading
s started to fluctuate wildly. Jack was just starting to register something bad really was wrong. "After my little show this morning for you Jack, I thought your mind would be working a little faster." She said disappointedly.

Jack
ignored her as he studied the read outs in front of him. "Damn it." He started slowly typing. Bringing up different screens and readings and then cursed again as he fumbled around hitting the wrong icons. "I can't access what I need from this stupid board. You would think they would put a decent board on the bridge." He slapped at another icon and missed getting frustrated. "How the hell is anyone supposed to…?”

The ensign
lightly slapped her open hand across his head as she got up from her jump board stopping his ranting. "Captain: request permission to go down to the engineering control room to analyze the trouble. I have locked out the engine controls to engine Number One, the test engine sir." She dragged Jack out from the engineering console before the Captain could answer.

"Permission
granted." He said as the two were half way out the hatch and Jack ran into the side sill of the hatch almost falling as he clutched at his face with one hand but the Ensign managed to keep him upright as they disappeared out of sight. Frowning she stared at the empty hatch. She knew that they often had problems with well establish and long proven equipment installations when they first lit them off after repairs or even overhauls. It did not come as any surprise that they were having problems with this piece of revolutionary technology even if it was just an upgrade on a proven engine. Still she suddenly found herself scared to death that it would not work.  She had been in dozens of battles with ships that had been heavily damaged, watching other ships die and never felt this scared. But then it was over 50 years ago and this time she was relying on a kid to pull off a miracle. Even if the kid's granddad was considered the smartest man in the Republic at one time before he lost it. But then she had heard all the rumors that Ion kids were usually considered handicapped morons and had never bothered to check into the condition.  Nor had she even thought of checking since the boy had come up with the plan but it was definitely time to check into the rumors now, after what she had seen
.
The thought made her sick to her stomach as sweat started forming on her brow and she started pacing the bridge. Trying to calm down before she started calling around to everyone in the fleet that could possibly know anything about the handicap. Hopping that a handicapped moron of the boys Grandfather was still smart enough to pull this off. After all she had read reports on ideate savants doing some amazing things. Even working miracles. Damn, they certainly needed a miracle now.

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

Jack
seemed to be dazed as the elevator dropped toward the stern of the ship. His eyes kept drooping until they were closed as he leaned against the platforms rail except when the Ensign talked to him and then all he would do was grunt or smile or agree. Finally she asked him a direct question getting pissed at him. "What the hell is wrong with you Turner?"

Jack
opened his eyes and looked at her as the pipe chase catwalks flashed past them. His eyes finally focusing on her as he smiled. "I'm fine. Just a little tired is all. Didn't get much sleep last night it seems. I don't know why I stayed up so damn late but I was just having so much fun. I just wish it made a little more sense to me today." Jack yawned and shook his head as he stretched his arms above his head and then scratched, running his fingers through his hair as he watched each tank’s catwalks grate running around the chase flash past.

"Do you have any idea what the problem is with the engine?"
The Ensign glanced at Jack frowning before looking away at the grates flashing past.

"Sure
, I think. Several in fact, I think, but some don't make any sense to me at all and I just can't seem to put a finger on any of the others. I am hopping a good look at the raw data will help." Jack leaned back against the rail as the catwalks passed by rhythmically and his eyes started slowly closing. "I think… That the, ah, anomaly, in the main engine, has got to be, at least related to, if not the same cause…."

A minute later the elevator
after passing through the bottom deck of the pipe chase, the lower crew birthing, the lower ships storage, lower gun platform, the engine feed deck, a bunch of cargo handling decks, past the boat hanger deck and the last of the cargo elevators, past several engineering decks to finally stop at the Engineering Central Control deck, to quietly slid to the side out of the twin side by side up and down shafts into a small compartment between them with a hatch far enough above the deck to allow the platform to slide up to it. The Ensign stepped off alone. "Well. As soon as you figure it out, you can take a break and get some more sleep." Turning around she saw Jack still leaning against the rail with his chin touching his chest snoring.

She
stepped back onto the platform grabbing Jack's arm jerking him awake. "The problem. I just have to figure out what it is." He said as he looked at her in surprise then let her lead him off the platform and through the hatch. They entered a passageway that went right and left but she hit the access control for the hatch strait across the passageway. They entered the engineering control room. The room was a good 75 feet wide but only roughly 35 feet long with a row of office doors on the bulkhead directly across from them, with 2 control console groups at each of the ends of the compartment to each side against the armored inner hull in front of large armored windows looking into the engine rooms for the control of the two individual engines. A central control group sat in the center forming a circle facing outward. A big difference from the cramped engine control room of the Turner Joy and even the ships he was familiar with in The Game. But here there were a lot of upset busy strangers around the consoles and looked like they were pulling out what hair they had by the sounds of things. Frowning Jack started slowing down. Starting to get defensive not knowing what was going on.

The Chief Engi
neer looked up from the central control console. "Why the hell did you kill the engine? It would have settled down in a few seconds."

"And what if it hadn't and the engine blew up or destroyed itself
and the ship." The Ensign raised her voice at the Chief to make sure he heard her over all the talking around them."

"I don't care, you tell me what you think the problem is. You don
't go hitting the emergency STOP, killing everything. It is going to take an hour to get it started again." The Chief was livid. Directing his ire at the Ensign."

Jack smiled
, now that was something he did know about and stepped forward between them. "Ah. Commander. The variations resembled test runs last night on the Sims that resulted in complete destruction of the engine Chief. It happen several times but I was never able to isolate the cause before I ran out of time. I should have stayed and figured it out. Sorry. Give me some time to check a few things. Beginning with that anomaly you said every engine of this generation seems to have when they start up. Since I was in the Gravity Coils department, I never heard of it or I would have looked at it more closely in my calculations. Though the computer seems to have known about it, plastering intermittent yellow flags on several equations dealing with the main coils interfaces. Maybe the fact that I spent all of the only successful run time at full thrust that last time reduced the probability of the explosion."