StarFight 1: Battlestar (18 page)

Branstead chuckled dryly. “Acting captain, people who figured out how to create an artificial black hole can surely figure out what star we are heading for. At a minimum, with their six ships spread out, they can perform triangulation sensor analyses to get our exact heading. Since they know we came here, to a yellow G-type star, they will look for all G-type stars along that outbound track. Kepler 10 is the closest such G-type star. They will follow us.”

“I was afraid of that,” Jacob said, sounding tired to Daisy. “Lieutenant, what do these aliens care about? Losing two ships, then three, then a final one has not stopped them from pursuing us. How can we dissuade them from attacking us? And will this First Contact disaster lead to perennial interstellar war between our two species?”

“That question frustrates me,” Branstead said, her tone giving life to that feeling. “The fact they planted a colony using dozens of landing pods says they care for their young. Whether larvae or hatched from eggs or even live births like with mammals, their children matter to them. The reason they attacked us may be as simple as their effort to protect their young from an invading species. It’s what we would do. It is what we
will
do in order to protect the colonists at Kepler 10.”

“And my second point?”

She blinked, muscles tightening on the high cheeks of her face. “I hope to hell we do not get into perennial war with a species we know almost nothing about! How many wasps are there in the galaxy? How many colonies do they have? Where is their home star? Do they have starships more powerful than this Battlestar? While we have won the equivalent of the Battle of Trafalgar, where the British faced a larger French and Spanish fleet, we have no assurance future battles will work out as well.” She fixed on Jacob. “Acting captain, I am amazed that the battle group has done so well. With new acting captains, with most crews never having seen true battles in space, and facing an unknown enemy possessed of ships as powerful as our destroyers and cruisers, we survived, we prevailed and you have saved the lives of more than a thousand people. Your choices of battle formation, the mix of weapons and your use of the cruisers and the
Lepanto
to shield our more vulnerable ships from concentrated beam attack, those actions were inspired. I’m glad I was not in your place.”

Jacob’s eyes grew large. His somber mood seemed to lift for a moment. He let out a deep sigh. “Lieutenant, thank you. Nothing in my academy studies prepared me for today’s events.” He waved toward Daisy and the others. “I had a lot of help. Good help from folks who are my friends and who are good at what they do.” Jacob licked his lips. “I thank you and the other deck chiefs for showing loyalty to me, to my XO Acting Lieutenant Stewart and to the other people on the Bridge.”

What! She was now a lieutenant? That was a normal rank for an XO. But still . . .

Branstead shrugged. “You had the initiative to change the ship status, to declare the Alert Unknown Enemy condition and then send the Cloud Skimmer to give us facts about the silence from our officers. No one on any other ship did that. To me, those actions earned you the right to lead us. The battles since then have justified my belief.”

Daisy could tell Jacob was trying hard not to smile. Which would be normal for a person as young as him, her or any of the other folks in the room. Even Branstead, with a Ph. D. in molecular synthesis of biological polymers, looked as if she was trying hard to be command proper. She was the leader of a deck with 51 staff, but she was also the mom of three girls, the keeper of two Chihuahuas and the wife of American fighter pilot. Or so Daisy had heard from Lori, during one of their beer and pretzel breaks on the trip out to Kepler 22. It sounded as if Branstead was fully on Jacob’s side as the leader of their ship. But how did the other deck chiefs feel about a new ensign taking over the
Lepanto
?

“Thank you,” Jacob said, his voice measured. “Please advise me of anything your deck needs for your people to do their jobs. And let me know the moment the wasp cartoon project is done. I want to send it ASAP and maybe save lives on the wasp side and on our side.”

“Sounds reasonable,” Branstead said, seeming to relax in her seat. But her gaze grew intense. “Acting captain, when we get to Kepler 10 you will make a neutrino report to the Star Base captain about these aliens, what happened, why you took control of the Battlestar and so forth. The base captain is a Star Navy Command rank captain. He could order you to give up control of the
Lepanto
to him, to one of his officers or to someone on this ship.” She slapped her chest. “For myself, I plan to send a signal to the base captain saying I strongly support your continued captaincy of the
Lepanto
and your leadership of the battle group. So long as these aliens follow us, they may attack us. You are the only person who has demonstrated the ability to withstand those attacks, then lead us to victory.”

Daisy looked to Jacob. How would he react to the woman’s blunt assessment of future options? She had known things could change once they got to Kepler 10. But if the wasps attack right after following the fleet to the nearby star, a change in command would be disastrous. Disastrous for the
Lepanto
and for the other eight ships in the battle group.

Her friend, who now acted years older than his 24 years chono age, lifted black eyebrows. “Lieutenant, thank you for that endorsement. I appreciate it, more than you can know.” He paused, looked over to her, Carlos, Lori and Quincy, then back to Branstead. The muscles in his face stiffened. “My first duty is to preserve this ship and the battle group and the lives of the people on our ships. To that end, I will fight any enemy, alien or domestic. As for the Star Navy base captain, yes, he might theoretically outrank me. But it will take 52 hours to travel the 45 AU from the system’s magnetosphere inward to the planet the base orbits. Until we all arrive at the base, I plan to be in command.”

Branstead looked relieved. “Good. But be alert for politics and game-playing by Lieutenant Commander Bannerjee. He has twice complained to me that he should have been the one to take command of the
Lepanto
, since he is the senior surviving officer on the ship.”

Jacob did not look surprised. She wondered if his matter-of-fact manner was also something he’d inherited from his father. “Understood. But you are the next senior officer by rank, followed by Lieutenant JG Jane Yamamoto of Life Support Deck. With the support of you two, and of the warrant and petty officers in command on the other decks, I am confident Bannerjee will remain where he is now. As chief of the Navigation Deck. No more.”

“Agreed.” Branstead waved at the pitcher of water in the middle of the table. “I’m a bit thirsty. May I?”

“Of course!” Jacob said quickly. “Help yourself.”

“Acting captain,” Daisy said quickly. “I recall there are some cans of beer in the fridge behind you. Perhaps the lieutenant would prefer a beer?”

Surprise showed briefly, then an almost relaxed smile filled Jacob’s face. “Excellent idea. And from this group’s past history, I suspect none of you would turn down a beer. Right?” he said, looking from Daisy to Lori, Carlos and Quincy.

“Sounds fine to me,” Lori said, her soprano sounding cautious.

“Right-o with me,” Carlos said, his manner turning relaxed as the formality of Jacob’s talk with Branstead moved to a relaxed mood.

“Exactly a fine idea,” Quincy said, his deep voice filling the space between them all. The man stood up. “I’ll get us six cans.”

“Thank you . . . Quincy,” Jacob said.

Daisy liked that Jacob seemed to be relaxing a bit from the worry load of nasty aliens and the surprise of having to become the ship’s acting captain. His use of Quincy’s first name now, versus his Spacer title, said a lot to her. She gave Quincy a smile as she took the beer her Brit friend offered, then she focused back on Jacob. Would there be any time for the two of them to . . . to get more personal? At the academy she had learned quickly one did not date the instructors, and most of the young men cadets were alpha types who always treated women as an afterthought. Not Jacob. While intensely focused on his studies, Jacob had always given her the impression of someone who looked beyond himself. That was why she had taken the time to visit with him at the orbital station when they all gathered for the group photo of
Lepanto
officers, then later on the long cruise out to Kepler 22. Now, seeing the new command side of him, along with his humility in inviting to the Bridge the Marine boss Richard O’Connor, she wanted to spend personal time with him. Group time was fine. But personal one-on-one time was the only way to get to really know someone. Would Jacob like the red and white carp fish she kept in her quarters? Would he understand what it had been like to grow up in a single parent family? Did he even understand the idea of a tight family budget, in view of his father’s family fortune and fine retirement income from the Star Navy? And what were Jacob’s personal joys, the things he did for fun, versus work? Or duty? She wanted to know the answers.

Jacob met her gaze, gave her a wink, then he looked to their beer distributor. Who had just sat down beside Lori. “Quincy, what was the mood like on your post? What did your buddies think of the alien counterfire using laser and lightning bolt strikes? How did your right front laser node hold up to the enemy strikes?”

The young black dude put down the beer he’d been sipping. “Well, we were all focused on getting as many repeat laser strikes going out from our node as we could. Plus, my CWO was always adjusting the node’s angle to bring as many wasp targets into our hit zone as possible. Until we joined with other ships on a single target.” Quincy paused, looked around, and saw Daisy, Branstead, Lori and Carlos all watching him. Being the center of attention seemed to surprise him. Her friend looked back to Jacob. “Uh, our mood was good. And when our laser fire joined with the lasers of other ships to strike a single wasp ship, we really felt good! It was clear they had tough hulls. But putting multiple laser beams on a single wasp ship meant we cut deep into their hulls. Or so my CWO told me as he monitored the electro-optical scope at our node.” Her friend paused, took a sip of beer, then shrugged. “Some wasp lasers hit the upper end of the right outrigger pod. The adaptive optics lenses and the ablative hull coating reflected or absorbed most of the incoming energy. We had no punch throughs on our hull, unlike the nose and belly of this ship.”

Jacob nodded slowly. “What did you think of the lightning bolt strikes?”

“Weirded me out!” Quincy said. “I recall lightning strikes from when my parents took me out to the countryside south of London. Saw bolts then during thunderstorms. Never expected to see 10,000 kilometer long lightning strikes in space!” He paused, noticed Branstead was watching him closely, then continued. “The enemy bolts did take out several hundred square meters of adaptive-optics lenses on our outrigger, though.”

Branstead nodded and looked to Jacob. “Acting captain, the damage to the right side outrigger pod, to the ship’s nose and to its belly and the belly plasma battery are things we need to repair. As best we can.”

Jacob set down his can of beer. “Agreed. But we can’t allow folks out in EVA right now. Not with the enemy still close to us. Can we repair the deep hull breaches on the nose and belly? The ones that caused us to lose the water between the outer and inner hulls in those spots? I know we have spare water. But can we seal up those breaches so we can inject water into those hull segments?”

Branstead frowned, then reached up to push brown bangs out of her eyes. “Well, we do have good repair robots that can handle vacuum. And the Engines Deck has some fine teleoperator engineers. Put the engineers to work managing the repair bots, along with some hull plates, and we should be able to cover those two breaches. But the ship will need the services of a full spacedock to restore the outer hull to its two meters of armor.”

Jacob winced, then nodded. “No spacedock at Kepler 10. Guess we will have to wait for that until we get back to Earth, or to a colony with a spacedock.” He fixed on the Science Deck chief. “Lieutenant Branstead, will you work with the Engines Deck chief on those repairs? I’ve only met Chief Warrant Officer Billy Chang once, during the boarding tour for new crew. You’ve served with him for years.”

Branstead gave a quick smile. “You are learning too many of the tricks of a good manager. Combine a delegation of work with a compliment. Yes, I will coordinate with Billy. And share with him my feelings about Kepler 10, and how you should remain as our captain.”

Jacob’s expression looked briefly hopeful, then the emotion shut down. Daisy wondered at that. Had Jacob learned that shutting down his emotions was the only way he could survive the fame of his father’s name?

“Captain, uh, Jacob,” called Lori from her left. “I’m pretty sure everyone on Navigation Deck will support you. Short of the chief. Who has no friends. Even the two ensigns who are his chief fix-it people do not care for his company.” Like Quincy, she now became aware of being the center of attention. She flushed, her light brown skin darkening as her blue eyes looked down.

“Lori, thank you,” Jacob said, his gaze moving from her to the other people at the table. “Quincy, thank you for that weapons input. Carlos, thank you for your help earlier in figuring out we can head for Kepler 10.” His gray eyes now rested a moment on her. “Daisy, you took to being XO the way a young duck takes to water. Thank you!” He grinned suddenly. “Now, a surprise for you folks from me. As I shared with Lieutenant Branstead, I consider you folks to be my brain trust, besides being my friends. I need you all close by. So,” he looked to Daisy, “Lieutenant Stewart, please move your things into the XO’s quarters on Command Deck. Lori, Quincy and Carlos, I want you three to also move to Command Deck. Take up the empty ensign quarters. The personal items of the former residents should be delivered to Chief Warrant Officer Cheryl Zhang on Supplies Deck. Agreed?”