Battleship Destroyer (52 page)

"Well ok." The Captain did not sound scornful. But then it was early. "How far did you advance playing
your little bootlegged copy of The Game?"

"What? Ah well sir I only made it to level 12 but then it started getting into
politics and dealing with negotiations on worlds and well, having to deal with Admirals and Presidential orders that made no sense in reality and tied so many knots around what you could and could not do that the game became ridiculous. So I usually played in level 10 or 11. In those levels all you had to deal with was other ships captains and a few admirals along with the ship's crews as always."

"Very well Mr. Turner but now tell me how many levels did you skip?"

"Skip? Sorry sir but in that game you cannot skip a level. Besides skipping a level would make any other higher level impossible to do. Too many rules and interconnecting facts to skip even one part of one level. Besides The Game won't let you, it controls what level you are on." Jack looked up and shrugged. "Fact is once I got to level 6 and became a Ships Pilot, it was so satisfying that I usually stayed on each level until the game simply kicked me up to the next without letting me go back. I had to get all the way up to 10 before it let me go back to the lower levels and then they were so elementary about dealing with every aspect of the crew that they were boring until I started designing my own ships. You can't imagine how exciting it is to designed a ship and then Command it into combat to see how stupid or smart the design is or was or... Usually I got my head handed to me on a platter as soon as the enemy figured out the week point in my design. That is until the last one I did. Things got real boring again when it got down to shooting fish in a barrel but it taught me how to use a fleet of high speed Destroyers against Battleships effectively. Something like what we are dealing with now." Jack looked up at the Captain. His smile fading. "Sorry Captain I did not mean to imply... Or. A. Can I be dismissed sir?"

"You are in luck Mr. Turner. I have had some training in handling fleets as well."
The Captains fingers stopped flying across her screen and sat reading it for a good minute as Jack stood there. Finally she took a deep breath and looked at Jack shaking his head. "Your new General Quarters Duty station is now the pilot Mr. Turner." The Captain hit the comm on the arm of her chair. "Your attention please. All ships. We have spotted an enemy ship approaching and I plan on taking a swipe at him as he passes. We will be going to General Quarters in 5 hours. Prepare the ships and yourselves for battle and get some rest before then. That is all." Turning to the Comm officer. "Inform the fleet's Captains that I will have a conference with them in one hour." Then to Jack. "Mr. Turner I want everything your teams of bright boys and our civilian science department can dig up on that Enemy ship before then and then have them monitoring the enemy as we attack for anything they can glean from him. You are dismissed."

"Yes sir." Jack saluted and left the bridge.

The First Officer turned to the Captain. "Sir! Can I have a word with you please?"

"No you cannot." The Captain smiled at her First Officer. "How many levels were you able to get through the Game Mr. Gagnon?"

"I don't underst
and Captain?   Ah... I finished 5.3 levels sir."

"Yes that is the average for First Officers. I am on 9. You are a good officer Mr.
Gagnon even though I only met you a few days ago but I see you have not used the Fleet Training Game for over half a year. A trend that I see is all too common even before the resent rapid expansion of the fleet. You need to find time to use it at least 5 or 6 hours a week. Fact is I can see we are going to have to make it policy for all officers to spend at least 5 hours a week on the Training Game and encourage 10. Especially with all our new officers no matter their rank."

"But sir it is only a game sir."

The Captain smiled up at his First Officer. "Since man could fly, pilots have spent countless hours training to fly aircraft and then Spaceships in simulators. All of us had to use simulators before we were allowed near the controls of a ship and fighter pilots still spend thousands of hours a year on simulators. No Mr. Gagnon.  The Navy realized that all shipboard officers could benefit from an accelerated training regimen and spent a billion credits designing and developing the Naval Officers Battleship Training Game or (The Game). Each hour of The Game is equal to weeks and even months of real time training depending on how good the officer is and how far the game can push him or her." The Captain shook his head. "The sad problem is with this rapid expansion and all our new officers from civilian Transports usually with good basic experience, The Game has kind of gotten dropped along the side of the road. We should not have let that happen." Turning to the Executive officer sitting at the ships Damage control and crew console. "I will leave the reimplementation of the training program for all officers to you Exec. Fact is let's extend that to the petty officers as well and specialty crews. Even if that means having to start scheduling time in the Sim compartment day and night. Comm inform the fleet if you please." The Captain got up and headed for the hatch. "The con is yours again Number One. I am also going to need you to take Mr. Turner under your wing so to speak and show him the finer points The Game is not clear about or weak on. For now I am going to spend a few minutes on The Game going over attack plans. I have never commanded a large lightly armed fleet attacking a single target at the speeds we will be passing. Never thought it was a possibility. Evidentially Mr. Turner has."

"Captain leaving the bridge."
The Ensign heard as she followed the Captain off the bridge. She watched her enter her day cabin and walked past as the hatch closed.  They had used The Training program extensively the last few weeks of boot camp surprising her after playing it aboard the Turner Joy. Now she got another surprise finding out that not only did the Navy sanction it aboard ship but that Jack had done so well in it when she had been stuck on level 6 though that explained why he made such a good Captain in the Game. But then he probably played it more than she ever thought of while she was running around with her girlfriends.  Bringing her wrist comm up to her lips. "Computer; where is Turner."

"There are
2 Turners aboard ship, 78 in the fleet 1,234 in the Navy. Which Turner do you want?"

"Jack for Pop's sake. Jack Turner from the Tramp ship Turner Joy."

"I do not have the crew list for the tramp ship, Turner Joy. There are 5 Jack Turners in this fleet. Twenty seven in the Navy.  Do you wish the Jack Turner on board this ship?"

"No! I want the Jack Turner on Pluto. Of course I want the Jack Turner on this ship."

"I do not have the station crew list for Pluto. I cannot tell you if or where a Jack Turner may be on Pluto. The Jack Turner aboard this ship is in his Cabin."

"Thanks." She headed for the platform elevator
surprised that Jack was in their cabin. "That was fast."

"You are welcome Ensign. Thank you for the complement."

"I was not complementing … Oh never mind. Out." She dropped her arm as she headed for their cabin.

The General
Quarters alarm screamed through the ship. Crewmen ran to their stations. Jack and the Ensign clomped onto the elevator platform with a dozen other crewmen. Some still pulling on their suits as the platform shot up.

On the bridge Jack clomped up beside the Pilot's chair. "I
, I am relieving you Lieutenant." Looking around at the Captain hoping she had changed her mind. But the Captain stayed silent as the Lieutenant started updating Jack on what he needed to know. When the lieutenant was finished Jack took a deep breath closed his eyes and repeated everything the Lieutenant had said and then took another deep breath. "I relieve you Lieutenant."

The Lieutenant got up from the chair. "You have the ship."

Jack sat down expanding the pilots chair to make room for his battle suit and tried to relax. He knew for certain now that he knew where and how everything worked. He had probably spent several thousand hours in the pilot's chair in the simulators on the Turner Joy in The Game.  His conscious mind still could not believe they were the same even now that he knew for sure. After all, these were on one of the Navies newest ships and something had to have been changed or updated.  And then he remembered. The Game had changed the appearance and function of the various control stations, displays and equipment several times over the years he had been playing even though the bridge's general layout had always remained the same. No, at least his subconscious mind knew exactly where everything was and how to use it all to the best advantage of the ship. The only disadvantage now was the fact that he was piloting a battle transport and not the old battleship in the simulation or one of the many ships he had designed, let alone the Destroyer he had cleaned up with against the best the computer could put against him. But then the Computer had never seen one of the latest enemy ships.

"Mr. Turner." The Captain
's voice carried across the hushed tense bridge. "We are going with your plan of attack. The other ships Captain's and I have spent a couple hours going over contingencies and developing maneuvers. You can find them on your board. Take a few minutes to study them before we deploy into attack formations."

Jack tapped one of his side screens and the fleet
’s basic attack formation popped up making him smile.  The attack formation had 5 groups circling a 6th command group in the center. The only difference from his proposal was that the formation's name was different than what he had used. The maneuvers where close enough to his not to be a problem, except again for the designations. Their designation just happened to be for a wildly different attack plan under what he was used to.

The First Officer pulled out a jump seat next to Jack and sat down.

"Ah Captain; Ah is aa? Is it too late to change the name and designations? Not ah. Not that they are not a, pretty names.  It's just aahh.  I.  I.  I am just used to using different designation letters for each of your maneuvers over the years now and aa. And….. And I am afraid of.  Of confusing them in the confusion of battle is all sir."

The First Officer grabbed
Jack's shoulder and leaned in. "What are you doing Turner.  Just use your brain and remember the new letters."

Jack frowned. "Yes Sir. Ah Captain a sir. Ah I, I have one additional maneuver for your consideration sir." Jack's fingers flew over the screen for a second as the First Officer stared at him. "This one was my favorite for this type of formation. Offering the most flexibility, allowing my ships to maintain effective fire on the enemy during a high speed head on pass for the longest time possible no matter which way he dodges."

The
First Officer Gagnon was turning red. "Turner, the Captain does not have the time to listen to a thousand stupid suggestions from moron Lieutenants."

"Hold off
there Number One.  Take a look at what he put up. It is a little unorthodox. "

Glancing at the screen the first officer shrugged.
"It looks like a frigging pretty air show flower bloom trick to impress the tourists. All it needs is some colored smoke."

"Yes but  instead of turning into the ship
cutting the range rapidly it has our ring of ships turned away before it passes, increasing the range and effective time they can continue firing at the sides of the enemy ship without getting into each other's way while the center command ships are already slowing down as it zips past." The Captain studied the maneuver for a few seconds.  "Works especially well with our guns on the transports sterns. As long as everyone stays close to their positions no one will be firing at a friendly ship. I don't know if I will use this but we may as well have it if we do need it.  Comm, send this to the fleet and conference each of the squadron commanders here in 15 minutes. After we finish deploying into attack formation.  And while you are at it, Mr. Turner give comm the maneuver designations you are used to. No sense in asking for problems when no one else here has had time to memorize anything."

The First Officer looked up as he turned away seething. "I don't fucking believe this!" He whispered to himself.
"How does a boot lieutenant already have maneuvers that were just designed and decided upon in a fleet conference only a half hour before?" Then the first Officer noticed that the list of designations Jack had put on the maneuvers skipped letters while some had double letters as well as not being in sequence. "Just how many additional maneuvers do you have memorized Lieutenant?" He whispered.

Jack's hands flew over the screen to his right.
"Oh a couple dozen basic with double the variations but they are for different circumstances not applicable here sir."

The Captain sat back and took a deep grim faced
breath.  "Comm; Fleet. Deploy to attack formation 5 in one minute. Attack formation 5 in 1…. Mark."

Jack finished and sent the screen to the Captain behind him,
the Comm behind and to the left and the Navigator to his right beside him with swipes of his hand toward them.

Once they were in Attack Formation Jack found himself bored as he waited. In the Game he always speeded it up so he didn't have the long
periods of nothing while the ship crossed the vast distances of space. This time the half hour seemed like forever. Looking around he spotted the Ensign sitting in a jump seat at the Science board. He had tried to get the director to come up for the battle so he would be handy for the Captain to talk to but he refused. Saying he could see better using his equipment down below. Though Jack knew he was not going to be the one using it. Sending one of his most junior scientists instead to sit in a jump seat on the other side of the console. Jack was at least happy that the one he had sent was the one that had been most helpful trying to get things done over the last week.