Battleship Destroyer (37 page)

"Jack." The ensign smiled down at his face and eyes that could not make up their mind what to look at. "Jack."  He
finally looked up and into her eyes and smiled back at her and then swallowed as his face turned red and sheer terror sprang up. He started to back up but the chair prevented him from moving.

"I
... I… I didn't. Mean to look. I am sorry Ens…" Jack started.

"That is ok
Jack. You can look at my boobs as much as you want. I like it when you do" And suddenly realized that she did. She fought down the shock of even saying that let alone thinking that after all the years of hating any and every one that even looked at her when she was not strapped down flat. Swallowing she took a deep breath. "Ah, now we need to find out why the engine does not work. Ok" She looked away trying to figure out why she had said that she liked him looking at her boobs. Why half of her wanted to Taser him at that moment for looking at her and a growing part of her that truly wanted him to do more than just look.

Fear
slowly left his face as he swallowed, replaced by bafflement. He looked down at her breasts and then back at her watching him as she kept a half smile. Without a word objecting or look of disapproval, without having to fake it. Still wanting him to look. Fighting the urge to rip the rest of her bra off for him.

Biting his lip and swallowing again, he smiled
looking up into her eyes and truly seeing her for the first time. No longer interested in her breasts for the moment. "Let's see why this piece of junk is not working shall we." Turning back to the console his fingers started slowly tapping as he glanced over at her boobs several times but as his fingers quickly increased in speed he soon forgot about the mountains and his fingers were soon flying across a board that expanded around him as the air and screens around the big compartment started filling with calculations and lists and reports and equipment breakdowns as he took over more and more of the control of the consoles around him from the engineers that had been assigned to them. Bringing surprised looks and complaints in his direction he did not notice.

Then a large engine appeared
in the middle of the compartment over their heads that started and blew up and collapsed only to be replaced by another that repeated a variation of its destruction. Then another and another and another every few seconds.

The Captain walked into the compartment with the Chief. "Captain on deck rang out across the compartment
as yet another engine exploded and everyone except Jack sprang to attention." At ease. What is this about an Ensign arresting the next bum that looked at her boobs?" The Captain stopped at the group of consoles around the center of the compartment next to the ensign and looked down from an engine that had exploded doing a double take before looking away at the engine over her head materializing. "Ensign you are out of uniform."

"Yes sir. Mr. Turner is making progress sir. The engines are running longer before exploding or destroying themselves.
" As the latest engine exploded as soon as it started. "Most of the time."

"Captain!" The lieutenant that had been kicked out of the console forced his way up
to the Captain. "That ensign kicked me out so a damn 1st Class grav tech could play with the main control console and then threaten to arrest anyone that looked at her. You have got to do something Captain."

Another officer stepped up next to him. "Captai
n, I saw the Ensign with this 1st Class rating in the officer’s mess just a few minutes ago. That is against regulations sir. I heard she had him in there last night as well and he slept in and officers cabin. You have to do something sir."

"Yes
Lieutenant. I do have to do something don't I. Can’t have an enlisted man in the officers mess or cabin or being the lead investigator now can I." Looking around the Captain smiled. "Ensign, since you are half out of uniform already, pin the ensign tabs off your jacket on Mr. Turner there and rip off those 1st Class chevron patches. He is now Ensign Turner." Turning to the Lieutenant that had complained about getting kicked out of his the console. "Lieutenant, you can go up to personnel and take care of all the paper work needed for a battle field commission for Mr. Turner. I want it on my desk in the morning ready to sign so I can swear him in. Dismissed."

The Engineering Chief turned to the Captain. "I have most of the
scientists you sent over working on this. I sent the accounting, Poetry, Basket weaving, Drama, Political science and P.E. Ph.D.'s back to scrubbing toilets. I don't have a clue what the rest are working on exactly though. Most insisted on being left alone to investigate the problem. Said that would get the best results. I have not heard a word out of the Research and Development Directorate since I put them in Refugee transport compartment 13C. But then they have been working on the problem for 30 years without success so I am not surprised they have not come up with anything but murdering my crew."

Jack glanced at the Chief for a second
with a frown at what he heard, shook his head and smiled. "Sir if I may. I ran through what everyone was researching just to see if anyone had solved or looked like they were getting close or had an idea I had not thought of and I am afraid that most of them are wasting their time on basics that have been gone over years ago let alone what we are working on now. Which is why I closed them and their consoles down. Though there are several that are showing very good work. Some that have even given me a few good ideas with the engine. The Ensign here is one and has done some fabulous work over the last 10 hours. I can't believe I slept 12 hours. Anyway she has gone through and cataloged and collated and compared all the tests we did before including the one you put on remote that destroyed itself. Saving me hours and came up with a damn good list of possibilities she ran through the simulator that has helped narrow down the culprit tremendously.”

“
A half dozen others are finally up to speed and making contributions but a few of the ones that are not even working on this engine may turn out to be just as important. One guy is trying to reduce my design down to work in the fleet's cruisers. That is a job in itself because it is not just a matter of reducing the size of the components. His efforts at reduction has produced a lot of data points that look helpful in debugging the big engine as well since it uses single coils instead of the twin coil step design we are having to use here. Another is working on what looks like a variation that may produce a shield against laser weapons that looks revolutionary, that I do not quit understand yet from lack of time. I have a list of researchers in that field here that I have already cut from the engine program since they really were no help and assigned them to that program and should speed things up if he has something. Then there is the gal that thinks she can use plasma to transfer power around the ship's power equipment directly and a hell of a lot more efficiently. Several others have ideas about increasing the power of our weapons that know nothing about propulsion physics and I have reassigned those that can help to that program. You should put these other groups someplace else so they can concentrate on those projects. Another half dozen are working on things I don't have a clue about and haven't had time to look close enough to figure them out yet but they look promising and should be given at least some time to flesh their ideas out. You might want to check on them and find out if it is something that we need now and give them additional help or kill them."

Jack's hands did not seem to even slow down as he talked. The lists of
people and his suggestions appeared on a side screen in front of the Chief. Jack turned his attention to other matters for a few seconds then turned back to the Chief with a baffled look on his face. "You sent a group into a refugee transport compartment that I don't understand. They seem to have data on engines from over 30 years ago but they are stumbling around like they have never even seen an engine before let alone know what makes the old reaction engine work and the stabs in the dark as far as the Ion drive goes is ridicules. Their work is disjointed and childish but they are down loading everything we do up here and replacing the time stamps on the data to months ago. What is that about sir?"

The Chief looked at Jack. "How do you know all of that Turner? The time stamps and all."

Jack looked at him as he turned his head a little. "I sent a bug up to them to find out if they really were that stupid and to see if what they were really doing could help and I am getting back every key stoke they make and can see the programs they are using. They are changing the design of the engine just a little as they change the time stamps on everything, but some of what they are deleting is what makes the Ion engine work. Probably because they don't have a clue of the basic principles. Oh but they do have the Black hole engine down pat. Using the same time stamp change procedures, they have copied all the work I did yesterday on the Blackhole engine without making any of the stupid errors they are making on this one. Oh and back to this engine, they are really getting stupid. They are dumping the ion feed and trying to shoot water mass atoms down it trying to make it just a more efficient mass driver hoping that if they dump enough mass down it, they will solve the problem of it destroying itself. Only thing is, I already tried that last night when I was feeling desperate and stupid and it doesn't work.  Even if it was to salve our problem all you wind up with is an engine that you cannot shut off because a portion of the atoms get sucked into the mini black holes. The longer it is on the more mass the black holes eat. Then when you turn the artificial
Blackholes off, they explode. Worse yet, the longer you run it, the more massive the black holes get. The larger the Blackholes get, the higher the percentage of the mass you shove down the engine the Blackholes eat. It is a viscous circle. The more you shove down the engine the more it eats until most of the mass you send down goes directly to the black holes until the black holes get so massive they are eating 90% of your mass and act as anchors and the ship goes nowhere and if you shut off the black holes all the matter they ate explodes." Jack looked at the Captain. "It took me all of 5 minutes to figure that out last night even as stupid as I was and these bozoos have been working down that line since you sent them up to the compartment hours ago."

The Captain shook his head and took a deep breath.
"Chief you can cut the power and the net lines up there and we will deal with them later." Then bent down studying the list of projects and people Jack had put up on display on the smaller side screen. The Captain studied the list for a good minute and then tapped a com icon on the table. "Lieutenant Commander McPherson, I need you to transport several groups of personnel back to the Red Dwarf and set them up in separate facilities with anything they need to continue their work. I am sending you the list now. I want them out of here in 15 minutes. Thank you. Out." Turning to the lieutenant that had complained about Jack being in the officers’ mess. "I need you to check on and get a detailed description of what these other rouge personnel are working on in detail and add them to the list of transferees if they have nothing to do with the engine program. Send me a copy of your findings as soon as possible. You have 15 minutes for a preliminary so get busy." Turning around she caught sight of the Ensign again. Ensign. You are out of uniform."

Jack suddenly stopped and
stared at the screen of a shuttle blowing up into a fusion ball a hundred miles across. "Shit! It must have sucked every atom in the damn shuttle into the damn Blackhole stripping the atoms down to their subatomic particles before it collapsed back into real space." He said to himself. "Why the hell did you let that group in the Refugee Compartment put a fucking engine in a shuttle? They did not even have the right sensors on it making the whole experiment a waste." Turning to the Captain. "Thank Godstar it was only a drone."

The Captain looked down at Jack and frowned. "We had to make sure we really had a problem Jack and the only way to do that was
a test it in real life. Boats do not fly themselves or engines operate in a vacuum."

Baffled
Surprise turned to concern as he worked through the impossible. "What? Did it have a crew on board Captain?" Jack said through clamped teeth. To upset to be scared.

The Captain frown
ed. "Yes it had a full crew Mr. Turner."

Swallowing Jack looked down. "I hope they were volunteers at least."

"No Jack, it was the shuttles normal crew along with the engine room crew from the ship we took the engine out of and 3 engineers I picked. It was their job and they did it as we will do our jobs and maybe die for the cause as well. Though I now see why the Director of the Research and Development Directorate refused to send any of his own engineers or scientists along."

"You sent
half a hundred men and women to their deaths along with a perfectly good shuttle." Jack's mouth dropped open with his eyes wide open as his face turned white.

The Captain looked away. "We are getting ready to send a quarter of a million men and
women into battle with a good chance of dying trying to save this Republic and maybe the human race. That engine of yours will give that quarter of a million crewmen including you a good chance of surviving if we get it running in the next few days and I will sacrifice as many shuttles and crews as it takes if we need to."

The Captain let that sink in for a few seconds. "I am already converting the engines of 62 transports like this
one you are on so we can make a quick run to the Rock to procure enough coils to upgrade all 200 battleships with engines and hopefully the new 24 inch weapons that is supposed to be in production and arriving at the Rock now. Don't make me sacrifice another crew Turner."