Battleship Destroyer (53 page)

Jack wa
s glad the Ensign was there as well.  He was starting to realize that this was for real and everyone could die in the next hour including himself. He had yet to force a confrontation with her over their past, still trying to digest that she was his long lost friend who hated him and wanted to kill him.

The Captain ordered the fleet to reduce their acceleration down to 50 Gees. Then addressed the fleet. "Gentlemen if
we are lucky and our sensors are comparable to the enemy's fleet sensors, he should not see us until the very last half minute. That will give us less than half a minute of firing time with our guns and torpedoes as we pass at point blank range. But that will be plenty of time to take this bastard out if everyone does their job. Good luck and shoot strait. Captain, Vice Admiral, out."

Jack chuckled at that. The fleet had only done a couple of gun drills the whole time he had been on the ship and knew that wa
s not even a fraction of the needed drills to work the crews up to being as good and fast as they could be. Not to mention that target practice always made for more accurate shooting.

"Mr. Turner; since the Director of science did not have anything new about the enemy that he thought would help us. You have been with the scientists. Have they said anything to you about the enemy ships?"

"Yes sir. They are very excited about all the technical details they are putting together but since they do not have a clue about combat, I do not think they could recognize something useful to us if it bit them on the balls sir. Oh a, sorry sir. I meant no disrespect sir. I have forwarded everything my teams came up with witch is quite a bit sir."

"Captain." The Ensign spoke up from the science terminal. "I don't think they are even looking. The department heads have a few grad students
in our teams looking at what Jack told the Director to study while most of the heads have their best people studying things that could only be applied to civilian applications and upgrades damn near as soon as we turn our backs." The Ensign shook her head looking down at the deck. "As I was just leaving, I stumbled onto several department heads having coffee and talking about discoveries that will make them millions as soon as they get back to civilization sir. You have to be serious about looking before you can see sir."

"Well Mr. Turner. If we survive this, you are going to have to do something about that since you are the Navy's liaison officer
and it is your department."

Jack watched the other ships form up a
round him.  He was glad only five ships took up flanking him at only a couple miles away with the other 6 groups of 5 ships a thousand miles distant on his instruments and his screens. The single enemy ship ahead had most of his attention as he shook his head at what the Captain had said. "How the hell am I supposed to do anything about that? The Director made it perfectly clear that as far as he was concerned, my only job was to report what he tells me to. Told me to screw myself when I told him to report to the science station here on the bridge even.  I was stupid enough to think he might have a few intelligent points that may help as fast as the battle will probably go. But then he is good at being tight lipped especially when he does find out something useful to us."

"What the hell did you say Lieutenant?"  The Captain leaned forward. "
You gave him a direct order to report to the bridge and he refused?"

"A yes sir. He said he did not need to sir."

"The hell he did." The Captain slapped the comm controls on his chairs arm. "Science deck. Get me the Director!"

"Sorry Sir."  Jack recognized one of the Navy officers that had helped him on the engine upgrade
he had put in charge of one of the Teams. "The director and most of his a, the civilian scientists left as soon as the General Quarters alarm sounded sir."

"What the hell? Where did they get off to? T
hey are supposed to be down there studying that damn enemy ship as we approach. It would be nice to know where the hell it's week spots are to target to start with. We even installed acceleration couches for them."

"Sorry sir but I do not have a clue except that they did not go back to quarters and a lot of materials and equipment is missing. As far as information on the
enemy ship. We have been studying the enemy weapons on that recon photo tracks and if this ship has the main weapons those battleships have we are screwed. They have 36 inch bores with carbon crystal linings in the barrels that can easily withstand a beam of several million degrees which explains their bright blue tint. I now it is not much but the director keeps pulling my team off to do other things as soon as Mr. Turner leaves.  Oh and their smaller guns seem to be the same high temp from a quick glance sir. At close range they could be just as deadly as the big guns sir."

"Can you tell me what w
eapons are on this enemy ship?"

"Sorry sir but I was forbidden to even
scan this ship let alone use the good equipment before they took it sir. I cannot tell you."

"Well Lieutenant.  You have my permission to scan them now."
The Captain gave Jack a disgusting look even though Jack was facing away from her.

"Sorry Captain but I already tried as soon as they left and what they did not take they locked up."

Jack slapped his comm. "Lieutenant. You can use my terminal in G hold. If they have not stolen that too? Get the rest of the crews working now."

The Captain looked down at Jack for a second. "Call as soon as you have something lieu
tenant." The Captain slapped her comm again. "Security, ship wide search for the civilian scientists top priority.  I want all their equipment secured and have them all strip searched. Out." Turning back to Jack.  "Now Mr. Turner remind me later to bust you back down to space man for making me do your job. Is that understood?"

"No sir. I am only the
liaison. The Director has made it perfectly clear I have very limited authority over the Civilians."

"Mr. Turner
, a god damn Petty Officer 3rd class has authority over all the Civilians, even the Director aboard a Navy Combat ship." 

"Captain!" The Ensign brook in.  "Even talking back to a Civilian let alone ordering one around
is enough to get anyone but top officers kicked off a Tramp Ship Sir. That is unless you are specifically ordered to by a senior officer sir. It is not his fault sir."

The Captain started turning red.
"You are not on the damn Tramp Transport anymore."

"Captain." Said the
Navigation Officer. "Five minutes to weapons range contact sir. They will pass 40 miles to our port negative side sir." 

The Weapons Officer turned to the Captain. "That will give us exactly 31 seconds
inside of optimum main gun firing range before intercept sir."

The Captain quickly lost her beet red color. "Optimum torpedo range Weapons?"

"3.23 minutes from intercept sir. They will hit just before the big guns open up so we don't fratricide our own torpedoes sir."

"Comm, pass that on to the fleet."

"Captain this is security. We have found the Civilian Scientists. They are in the ships shuttle boats on the Port side flight deck and supposedly on some of the life boats on the passenger decks. I am sending someone up there now to check. The Director is in the Admiral's barge locked up tight as are the Captain's Gig and the Whale boats. A lot of equipment has been left around the locks. They evidentially could not figure out how to open the rear cargo ramps on the boats sir. They also must not have known about all the shuttle and transfer boats stacked up in the hangers. Do you want us to blast them out sir?"

"No leave them alone. We will deal with them later. Leave a guard on them and
take that equipment back to the lower hold then return to your battle stations."

"Sir!" Screamed the Comm officer.  "I am picking up a
n FTL transmission from the Admiral's Barge through the ships systems sir. It is beamed directly toward the enemy ship sir."

"Put it on the sc
reen comm. It is too late to cut it, they now know we are here. May as well as hear what the windbag has to say."

A side screen changed to show the Director speaking in
mid-sentence.  "….work in peace together for both of our benefits with my help directing the transfer of Technology.  We are both intelligent races and can come to some understanding.  All you need to do is tell us what you want us to do to stop this war before more people die. Your people and ours.  I know our weapons cannot hurt you, take our offer back to your Commanders, or King or Potentate and tell them that the human scientific community stand ready to help you bring new enlightened harmony to all people. Yours and ours together."

"Damn it! Comm;
cut the ship connection to that sucker! At least in the lock he can't do any more damage. Comm, tell me if we get any answer to the transmission. "

"Four minutes Captain." Said the Navigator.

Four large beams streaked past the little 6 ship squadron as the enemy ship lit up. None of the beams coming close.

"Captain to fleet. All ships launch torpedoes immediately."

The ship shook as the 12 torpedoes shot out of the bow of the Parsley as 12 streaks left
each of the 29 other ships in the fleet. All headed for the enemy ship. "Hopefully the torpedoes are small enough that they will not be seen until it is too late to maneuver out of their attack profile now that they have been warned. Security; you have my permission to blast them out now. Captain to fleet; evasive maneuver Delta in 15 seconds mark." Turning to Jack.  "You have the fleet Lieutenant."

The
Security Officer practically screamed.  "Captain! The hatch to the ship's Port side flight deck has been blown off using the emergency escape explosives. I have lost crewmen blown out with the escaping air sir. The Admiral's Barge is just launching sir."

"What the hell?"

"Captain; now the Captain Gig and their goes the Whale boats just launching."

"
My god sir."  The Damage Control and ship's Executive Officer turned to the Captain. "We get hit in that open hatch instead of the armored hull, half the stern section of the ship could be destroyed."

"Captain we are doing over 10
00 lights." The First Officer next to Jack said. "Way too fast for any boat to slow down to orbit a system. Don't they now they will continue forever in deep space unless they are picked up. That is if they last that long without being hit by an atom or something bigger. They don't have the shields to protect them at this speed. What kind of morons are they."

"Nothing we can worry about right now Number One.
Mark the location of the crew blown overboard for later pickup when we can get another boat unpacked and launched. Hopefully they got their helmets sealed up."

"One minute to torpedo intercept Captain." Came the weapons officer
's announcement.

Everyone forgot the boats and the
scientists as the life boats started shaking the ship with each of their launches. The catapults driving each boat away from the side of the ship at several hundred miles an hour in a staggered launch. "Damn it.  Engineering. Stop those idiots from launching. Security get to the damn life boat ring and stop them."

The launches continu
ed for a good 15 seconds. Then security came on the line. "Sorry Captain, we were not able to stop any of the occupied Lifeboats even though we got here before the last couple of them launched. They had the outer lock hatch jammed and they do not need power to launch." The life boats joined the Admiral's barge, Captain's gig and Whale boats as they fell toward the enemy ship and the Republic fleet continued to De- accelerate (slowing) as they approached the enemy ship.

"Mr. Turner?" The
junior scientist next to the Ensign spoke up. "Most of the interns and junior scientists have returned to the holds with most of the important equipment. They did not have much choice while the Director was there watching but once he locked himself and his close assistants and secretary in the Admirals gig. They saw no reason to follow his stupidity when the director ordered them to the life boats and should have the equipment back on line in a few minutes." He looked around the bridge and then back at Jack. "Sorry Mr. Turner but the director is very good at destroying the lives of people that cross him. One word from him and we could be put on the Academic Black list and be barred from every University in the Republic. I know a guy that is working at Micky D's that has a dozen degrees simply because the Director did not like the way he looked at his wife. Though come to think of it, now that the ensign has pointed it out, he did say something about the director trashing one of his papers from being published and then an exact copy came out under the Director's name. Said he was stupid enough to argue with the Director about it, threatening to go public. He was thrown out onto the street within minutes with only the cloths on his back. Barred from returning to his University apartment and offices since they were university property. Now he can't even get a job teaching grade school."

Jack glanced at the
Captain and then back at the young man and shook his head. “Well, then you probably need to sign up so the Navy can protect you. That is if the Captain is willing to keep you in the research department. We will talk later. See what you guys can get on this enemy ship for now."