Battleship Destroyer (77 page)

"What can I say?
" Jack fought down the terror that was welling up in side of him at being discovered to be the fraud he felt like. Taking a breath he tensed his jaw and forced a smile. "It took a while for the Navy to find my records." He said hesitantly as he turned around and spotted the Ensign staring at him with a reassuring smile. Taking a deep breath.  "Now I expect you to have that engine on line in an hour. Can you do the job or not Commander or do I need to lighten the ship and do the job myself?"

The Chie
f looked out of the screen as his face turned white at the thought of breathing vacuum.  Swallowing several time, his mouth opened and closed a few times then after taking a deep breath he said. "No. I can do the Job Captain!" He spit the words out as his eyes turned to hate.

"Good
. Captain out." Turning to the Navigator as he wondered how the new information was going to affect the crew.  "Set course for Cloud entry point Zebra 8."

“
Ah. We have drifted quite a ways and that course is going to take us through the enemy ships we just destroyed sir."

"Science, any
sign that any of them are still alive?"

The science console officer turned to face Jack
with the Ensign sitting in a jump seat beside her. "I have been studying the squadron and I cannot see any signs of movement
.
I can see what looks like emergency fusion cores still going on most of the hulks but no weapons or life though that just may mean they are too deep inside the hulks for us to get a reading on them. I can detect several hot spots on target ship Echo the closest one to us. It is not as damaged as the others. It is possible that it has crewmen still alive on it sir."

"Ok. Pilot ahead dead slow
if you please. Let's get a little closer and take a look. Weapons do you still have any guns able to fire?" Jack watched the engine power up and frowned at their low acceleration figures and the stream of mass shooting out the back.

"We have all our weapons ready to fire Captain. Most of the gun crews stayed
and made repairs but with most of the generators off line, it will take a while to recharge them sir."

"Very well weapons
, start charging them one at a time. Cargo officer. What are we carrying? What is our gross tonnage?" Jack suddenly realized that he should have found that out as soon as he sat down in the Command Chair. He was not even sure weather this was a cargo ship or mass tanker.

"
Except for tanks 50 A and D, Our tanks are full of reactant mass Captain. We are at our Gross limit sir." With Jack just staring at him for a few seconds the man continued. "Captain Stuckored thought that the fleet just may need remassed if something happened to the new engine conversions and we had to go back to the original engines sir."

Jack smiled. "That was good thinking Lieutenant." Turning to the damage control console. Jack thought for a second. "Did any of the other tankers with mass still in their tanks get hit and did the reactant mass offer any protection to the aft section?"

"Ah... I don't know about that Captain.  We still have trapped crewmen forward in the torpedo rooms. They are attaching a lock to the bulkhead now so they can cut into the compartment. It will take a while yet...” Came the Ensign reply after a few seconds.

Then
from his new second in command. "All the Tankers are at or near gross weight, were dragging a little behind the rest in the formations as they shut down their engines coasting. So we could turn to point at the enemy bringing all the fleets guns to bear when we fired. The only reason this tanker was closer to the enemy than the rest of the squadron when she was hit, was because the fool Engineering Chief took control. He put the new engines at full powered thrust, lunging ahead of the fleet before he started his turn trying to escape. The enemy took full advantage of the opportunity when he made the ship a perfect target."

"Well
, we will just have to hope that the reactant mass helps protect us if they do fire at us." Jack frowned and took a breath.  "Ah, since the crews are still in the torpedo bay. Can they fire any torpedoes if we need them to?"

"Ah not without power sir."

"Well ensign. See if you can get them power up there. Navigator, I want a course to bring us within a mile of the enemy ship still half way intact, target Echo I believe it was, as fast as our single engine will get us there. See if you can keep our bow pointed at them as much as possible as well. Weapons, keep our guns trained on them. That includes our close in weapons as well. Oh and do we have any marines not needed for rescue work?"

The First Officer turned to Jack. "Yes sir. We have a
couple of squads that just arrived that are still on the lower deck and all weapons personnel have had training in repelling boarders."

"Good Number One. Get the crewmen
armed and suited up in armor just in case and a shuttle ready with as many of the marines as you can break free for a few minutes. Damage Control, Ensign, do we have any repair crews we can pull off general repairs for an hour. We are going to need them if I decide to make a fast raid onto one of their ships to retrieve a few tech memento's to take home with us. Maybe we can even find out who the hell we are fighting."

"Ah Captain, they have
reached the torpedo room and made a list of crewmen trapped there and who they think are still trapped around the rest of the forward section of the ship. The ships First Officer is on that list in the Torpedo room sir." First Officer Parker turned toward Jack.  "He is wounded but they are saying that he ordered the hatch to the torpedo room left open long enough to get most of the surviving wounded crewmen with damaged suit trapped in the forward part of the ship that could move into the armored torpedo room before closing the hatch. Besides the crewmen in the torpedo room, we still have almost 50 men they are trying to extract elsewhere. Are you sure you want to continue with this reconnaissance of the enemy ships with that many men still trapped up there sir."

"No I don't want to do anything with the crew
men trapped up there Ensign but we do not have time to get them out first with the enemy breathing down our necks. We have to pass the enemy ships anyway, so let's take a closer look and then if something does not look right we can leave. But at least let's be ready just in case the opportunity presents itself."

"Captain it is going to take time to transfer a
ll the crewmen in the torpedo bay one crewmen at a time out through the single emergency airlock after repairs have been made to the compromised suits even when they get the hole cut."

"Well then
don't. Just replenish their airpacks repair or replace the suits and then blow the air out of the torpedo rooms and take them out in one mass and be quick about it.” Tapping a few icons. “You have 15 minutes, now go and get it done." Jack glanced down the list of trapped crewmen that included half the senior officers of the ship. Most of them could replace Jack as Captain in a heartbeat. "If we are going to pull this off we need the help of all of them." Standing up Jack stepped to the pilots Helm Chair. "That means they are going to need your help to Number One. I will take the Helm."

The Pilot looked up at Jack and
finished his maneuver turning the ship to head directly for what was left of the enemy squadron as he spoke. "We will have to line the rout down through that mess in the bow to the forward tank chase's intact bulkhead and have the forward part of the chase evacuated until the refugees are in the chase compartment before repressurizing it, but I think we can do it without losing anyone even if their suits are leaking sir."

"Good
.” Jack took the seat and smiled as he felt the ship under his direct control again. Though he wished the First Officer had left turning the ship onto the plotted course for him to do. "Ok. Sensors, put the enemy ships on the main screen please. Start sweeping the damn things for any signs of movement or traces of new hot spots or charging weapons around the ships." Looking up at the screen and the hot spots on the one ship that was still mostly intact. "Science, what do you make of the hot spots on Echo?" He pushed the throttle forward to quarter thrust and watched what looked like a fire hose spew out the back. "What the hell!" he thought to himself.

"It does not
seem to be near any weapons or vital equipment that we know of but then they are aliens and we are going by what we were able to see close up when that enemy ship passed so close to the fleet last week. Which is not much." The Ensign tapped a few icons and shook her head. "The only thing I can think of is either emergency generators or pockets of surviving crewmen. But then this ship seems to have been better equipped than most of the rest to begin with. It had 8 guns and a half a dozen armored decks instead of only 2 or 3. I think it must be the command ship for the little squadron. We could be looking at intact command facilities and maybe even the squadron commander."

"
Otherwise you are saying that ship could be a treasure trove of intelligence that just may help us win the war." Jack took a deep breath. “That also means it is not going to be easy. Weapons, I want you to split off the gun capacitors. At this range I don't want to destroy too much of what is left if we have to fire."

"Sorry Captain but the capacitors are conn
ected with busbars welded between capacitors with one gun cut out of the loop. We would have to cut the bars to split them and weld a new bar back onto the idle gun. The plan did not have a bus bar switch in the design."

"Well then
you are going to have to cut the damn bars and clamp something back on you can take back off and move if you have to." Tapping on his comm. "First Class Quincy…. Engine Room One, Quincy."

"Oh sorry Captain. A bit busy down here."

"That is all right. Why don’t I have any decent power on my one and only working engine?"

"I am sorry Captain but The
Engineering Chief insists on us doing things his way but he does not have a clue how these new engines work. I am basically just dumping reaction mass down it just to get it working as well as it is."

"
Yes I can see that. Ok, where is the Chief now?"

"In engine room 2, tearing out the new feed system to replace it with the old."

"God Star. Get over there and kick his butt out of the Engineering spaces. You are now in charge of the Engine rooms. Tell that son of a bitch that I want to see him immediately. We will be stopping in a few minutes and you will have a half hour or so to get # 1 repaired and then you can get engine 2 going."

"The fleet crews are working now
but the shock absorbers on engine 2 the Port side engine were rusted frozen and the hits forward did a tremendous amount of shock damage to the auxiliary and support equipment and structures. Nothing that can't be repaired but it is going to take some time. A good 6 hours for engine 2 and it is going to take longer than a half hour to repair engine 1 sir."

"Damn it! Pu
t both crews working on engine 1 the Starboard engine. Repair it back to the new Ion standard and forget about 2 for now.  We need 1 as soon as you can get it up. I don't care how you do it just get it done. Keep me informed."

The ship slowly
approached the enemy's apparent hulks as Jack and half the crew studied them. A hundred miles out some of the enemies small self-defense turrets started firing at them but they were quickly silenced by the battle transport's 5 inch and 3 inch turrets without having to resort to using the ship's big 16 inch guns. He waited until the ships were almost on top of them before turning around and using the single engine at its puny full thrust to slow the ship down to stop only a mile from the enemy's still half intact battleship, target Echo. Then whipped the bow back around to point at the enemy ship to use their reactant mass storage tanks as a shield. Finally breathing a sigh of relief when he finished the maneuver without the enemy even moving let alone firing its monster guns at them.

An Officer with Commanders leaves
came storming onto the bridge. "Just who the hell's idea is it to assault a fucking enemy Battleship?"

Jack turned around. "Not assault, scavenge
r raid if possible. And who are you?"

"I am this ship's First Officer and with the Captain dead, in Command."

Jack swallowed. Suddenly unsure of himself. But he had known it was going to happen.

Mr. Parker walked in behind the man and said. "Ahh, Mr. Wilson. I am afraid that while you were trapped in the bow, the Admiral made Commander Turner the ships Commanding officer. Captain Turner made me first officer but I will gladly turn the post back over to you with the Captains permission."

"What the hell!" The Commander looked Jack up and down as Jack climbed up out of the Pilots chair. "You are just a fucking boy. What 18 or 19. What fool would make you a ship's Captain?"

Jack bit his lip as he
finished climbed up out of the pilot’s chair, trying to think of what to say or even do. Standing to face the upset Commander, Jack finally smiled. Deciding to continue with what he had planned and let the Commander settle the ships command arrangements with the Admiral.  "Good to see that you are alive Mr. Wilson. I will take Mr. Parker up on his offer and let you rearrange the officer billets on the ship since you know who survived and who did not but he deserves a good promotion for keeping the ship alive in spite of the Chief's orders to abandon ship. You have the bridge while I take a boarding party for a quick raid. I expect to only spend 15 minutes on the enemy ship. That should be plenty of time to grab some equipment and bodies but you never know. I put First Class Quincy in charge of the engine rooms replacing Chief Buttonbutt who I barred from the engine rooms.  Quincy is trying to repair the engines and should hopefully have at least one ready to go by the time we get back to the ship and we can rejoin the fleet. Are there any questions Number One?"