by Jerry Boyd
“They get aboard whenever it begins to look like they might need to go out.”
“What’s Shorty’s excuse?”
“He was visiting Taz, when you asked me to alert them, and the other ship was next to Black Beauty.”
“We really need to come up with a name, instead of just calling her Beauty’s sister.”
Topper replied, “The AI aboard suggests ‘Midnight’, Boss”
“Midnight it is. I assume between the four of them, they can come up with a plan to cover the approach from Squirrel space?”
“It appears Taz and Willum have been working on it for some time. They think it is about as good as it is going to get.”
“That ought to be entirely good enough, then.” I turned to Saucy. “Connect me to Scotti, please.”
“Yes, Boss?”
“You probably already have it started, but I was just checking to make sure that you have the other carriers building scout ships like Black Beauty and Midnight.”
“No, Boss. For once you’re not behind. I’ve been so busy getting everything back into good shape, I hadn’t started that yet. It is on my list of things to do, and I think the other carriers are fit enough to start some side projects. I’ll get them on that.”
“Thanks, Scotti. I know you’re busy, I’ll let you get back to it.”
“Later, Boss.” I waited till the connection dropped, and asked, “Topper, Sue, do either one of you have any idea how close those Squirrel patrols might have been when they had their mutinies?”
Topper replied, “I don’t, Boss.” Sue was busy with her console, so I gave her a minute. Finally, she said, “Based on all the data we’ve taken from captured Squirrel ships, they don’t normally patrol closer than about two day’s flight, for their FTL drives. Given the current situation, they are probably patrolling closer than that. Even so, I don’t think we should expect them for at least twenty hours, Boss.”
“Thanks. I think I’ll go relax a while, before the big battle starts. Topper, your ship. If they arrive before I return, I want stunners and drive killers asap when they come out of FTL. Whatever you do, do not give them a fighting chance.”
Topper replied, “My ship. If the Squirrels get here before you get back, kick their butts hard and fast. Understood. I forwarded your instructions to the fleet. Commodore Sally sends her regards.”
“Tell her if she lets the Squirrels scratch your nose art, she can go out with you to help fix it.” Topper chuckled, and said, “Message sent, Boss.” I headed out, not sure where I was going. I found Snitz waiting outside the door to the bridge. I said, “I think you’re right, boy. It is time for some Frisbee.” We got a transit, and headed to the room where we usually played. We had a lot of fun, until Snitz got tired. I sat down and petted him. That’s how Nikki found us. “Playing hookie, Caveman?”
“Guilty as charged, Your Honor.”
“What are you planning to do today?”
“Get in some range time on moving targets, and try to unwind, before the next bunch of angry Squirrels show up.”
“When are you expecting them?”
I looked at my watch. “About eighteen hours, if Sue’s guesses are right.”
“Let’s get to the range, then. Why do you think you need to work on moving targets, anyhow?”
“The other day in the gym, there was only one bullet scar on that knife aimed at Greg. I know Jane wouldn’t miss, since it was aimed at Greg, so I must have. That’s not something that needs to happen again.”
Nikki giggled. I asked, “What’s so funny?”
“Jane thinks she missed. She’s been on the range every day since.”
“It’s for sure one of us needs the practice.”
“No, actually, it’s not. I had Jackie take a closer look at that knife. To the naked eye, it looks like there is only one bullet mark. If you look close enough, you can see that there are two, right on top of one another.”
“No kidding? We both hit? Right in the same spot?”
“Yep. You both have been worried for nothing.”
“And you didn’t say anything because?”
“It was fun to watch you two sweat for a change. I get tired of you two being so much faster than me.”
“After the kids are born, jump in the ‘doc, and get enhanced. If I can’t take care of them for a day or two, with all the nanny bots there are running around on this ship, something is bad wrong.”
“I may just do that.”
We got to the range, and Jackie set me up with some moving targets. Nikki went to another lane. After a few mags, it became clear to me that Nikki must have been right, because I wasn’t missing. Jackie turned up the difficulty, but as long as the targets had a predictable path, I did fine. When she snuck in some that turned in midair, I started to miss, until I got the hang of it. I was beginning to get tired enough to start missing again, when Nikki came back and said, “Convinced, Caveman?”
“I am. Let me clean my weapon, and we can go get something to eat.”
Jackie said, “Boss, there’s one more thing you need to try before you leave. I can clean your pistol while you do, if you would like.”
I replied, “Okay, what do you have, Jackie?”
“We need to go to the longer range, Boss. Nunya sent over the designs for the carbine. She wanted your approval, before she sent it to the fleet.”
“Have the Gun Grannies passed it, yet?”
“Mrs. Cachi has. Mrs. Sloan didn’t get a crack at it until their fleet came out of FTL, and she has been too busy to give it a proper test, since then.” When we got to the other range, she handed me an odd-looking carbine. I knew it would work, if Nunya had designed it, but I had to take it all in. The lower was pretty much standard M-4, so muscle memory would tell most of us how to run it. The upper, well, that was a whole different story. Remington Model 8, drawn by a steampunk artist on an acid trip, is the best description I could come up with. For all its weirdness, it looked good and rugged. The red dot sight was nice and clear. I asked, “How’s the battery life on this sight?”
Jackie said, “It charges from the battery in the magazine. As long as you shoot it on a regular basis, you never have to worry about it.” I put a few rounds through it, and handed it to Nikki. I had to help her at first, since she had never used an AR before. After a couple of magazines, she said, “This is nice, Caveman. Light, and easy to shoot well.” I turned to Jackie and asked, “I’m assuming Beatriz tested this thing every way she could think of?”
“She did. She even had Zoom run off some dirt in the printer, so she could do a mud test.”
“It passed?”
“Not the first two times. Nunya didn’t like her much for awhile.”
“I bet not. How many rounds will it fire before it gets too hot?”
“That’s another thing Nunya got upset with Mrs. Chachi about. She had Zoom build a test rig that would power it from ship’s power, and feed it projectiles without stopping. It seized up after a thousand rounds of full auto.”
“That should be adequate, I would think.”
“You might think so, Boss, but Nunya went back through, opened up a couple of tolerances, and handed it back to Mrs. Chachi. She couldn’t get it to stop working, even after leaving the trigger tied back all day. It gets fairly hot, but it won’t stop. As long as you don’t touch the barrel shroud, you should be fine.”
“Is anybody working on frangible ammo for it, so we can fire it on a ship, without worrying about letting out the air?”
“The standard ammo is frangible, Boss.”
“Lordy! Anything else amazing I should know about it?”
“I think that’s about it, Boss. Do you think it’s good enough to issue to the fleet?”
“You bet your tin heinie I do. All you were waiting on was my okay?”
“Yes, Boss.”
“Why didn’t you ask me to come down and check it out sooner?”
“You’ve been a little busy since the rest of the flee
t got back, Boss. I thought I would have to wait until the next Squirrel fleet had been taken care of, to ask you about it.”
“Well, Jackie, I like this at least as much as Lincoln liked the Spencer. Start production across the fleet ass-ape.”
“On it, Boss.” Nikki asked, “You hungry, Caveman?”
“Now that you mention it, I could eat.” We headed off to the galley. I said, “Let’s walk.”
Nikki replied, “Oh no, your spider sense is tingling, isn’t it?”
“You have been hitting the culture pack. No, I just feel like a little exercise, Space Cadet.”
“We’re hosed. You said the magic words.”
“What do you mean?”
“You never find anything when you go looking. It’s only when you say, ‘I just want a little exercise’ that the crap hits the fan.”
“Really? I hadn’t noticed.”
We strolled along, and made it all the way to the galley, without interruption. I knew Nikki was probably right, and I wondered how Gene had managed to keep the trouble off our route. Nikki said, “It’s a miracle, Caveman! We made it.”
Stella was waiting for us, and guided us to a table. She brought out our usual drinks, and asked, “What would you like?”
I didn’t have a craving for anything, so I said, “Just the special for me.” Nikki said, “Me, too. The kids have quit being so picky about what I eat.” Stella took off to put our orders in, and I asked, “Things are getting a little easier?”
“For right now. Give it another week or two, and you can paint Goodyear down my side. My uniforms are starting to get tight. With Jimmis, I went from not showing to big as a freighter in under a month.”
“You know you’ll still be the prettiest girl in the galaxy, no matter how big you get, right?”
“Are you sure you don’t need us to print you up some more of those contacts?”
“I’m serious. I look at you, and all I see is beautiful.”
She had been looking at me that time, and I could tell she didn’t see any evidence of deception. She said, “You really believe that, don’t you?”
“I do. I’m the luckiest guy in the whole galaxy.”
“Wanna find out if it’s luck, or skill?”
“I’m scared, now. What are you talking about?”
“Some of us figured that sooner or later, it was going to come to a fleet engagement. We built a little sim to see if you could fight a fleet or not.”
“Okay, I suppose, who all was in on this?”
“I’m, aah, not at liberty to say.”
“Your Grandpa, the prick, you say?”
“I never said that.” I could have figured out who else had a hand in this new sim, but Stella brought out our meal. After we had eaten, we headed for the sim deck. On the transit, Nikki said we had pushed our luck enough for one day. Bone was waiting for us. He said, “Howdy, Boss. I hear they’ve cooked up something special for you.”
“That’s what I hear, too. You think I have a chance at all?”
“You’ve beaten several sims that the old-timers thought couldn’t be. I wouldn’t want to bet against you.”
“I notice you didn’t say you had bet on me, either.”
“Too close to call, I would say.”
“Let’s get on with it, then.” He was about to hook me up, when Snitz came running and jumped in my lap. I scratched his ears and said, “I can use all the help I can get. Thanks for showing up.” Bone finished getting me ready, and the sim started. I handled the first wave of Squirrel ships just fine, but as soon as we had them where we wanted them, the second wave jumped in behind us. I hollered for Ruth to do Death Blossom, and she managed to save our bacon, but they had done a lot of damage to the fleet before we were able to get the situation under control. It took three more runs before I got an outcome I was happy with. I unhooked, and petted Snitz. He seemed a little disappointed we had finished so soon. I moved him off my lap, and got out of the pod. Nikki was standing there looking perturbed. She said, “Dangit, Caveman! We worked for more than a week on that scenario, and you went through it in half a day. How are we supposed to keep up with you?”
“It always takes longer to make something than to use it. I think I learned some good stuff. You and your team built a good scenario.”
“Oh, I’m glad you were able to figure it out, it’s just a little frustrating to see something you worked so hard on get trashed so easily.”
Bone spoke up. “I’m glad you fly for us, Boss. That was good work in there. The old-timers wouldn’t have been able to get close to that kind of performance.”
“They tell me my main advantage is that I let the bots take care of their jobs, without looking over their shoulders all the time.”
“I saw that. You sure do go about it differently. Seems to work for you. Keep up the good work, Boss.”
“Thanks, Bone. That means a lot, coming from somebody who has seen as much as you.” I looked at my watch. “Looks like we’ve got time to eat again, and then catch a nap before Sue’s earliest estimate of when the Squirrels could get here.”
Nikki replied, “That’s good. Gus is hungry again.”
“Becky doesn’t get hungry?”
“Why, no, Caveman. She’s a little lady. She doesn’t kick and fuss.” She was still convinced Murphy had some problem waiting for me, if we walked, so we took the transit. Stella fed us another fine meal, and I took Snitz by the grass room. We settled in for a nap, but Nikki was having trouble dropping off to sleep. I asked, “What’s wrong, Space Cadet?”
“I’m just worried about this battle you’re about to go into. Do you really think you can take them out as easily as you did in the sim? I’m worried we didn’t make it hard enough to really challenge you.”
“I’ve taken on this many ships before, with just the Gene, so I don’t think it will be too bad.”
“But these are going to be ships with better crews than what you’ve had to go against before.”
“All of them just went through a mutiny. That has to have a bad effect on crew morale, and their ability to work together. This crew was a little off their game for a few days, even though Bill and Jennie didn’t succeed. I can’t imagine that it would have been better if they had.”
“I suppose that’s right, and you sent Grandpa out to jump in behind them when they get here. They really don’t have a chance, do they?”
“Worst case, we have to hold them to a standstill till Snappi and his fleet show up to take them home.”
“You don’t think that’s going to be how it plays out, do you?”
“If all they have are the three ships that Snappi knew about, I don’t think the chance of that is good at all. At this point, we don’t have any way to know if we can trust that report or not.”
“You think Snappi would give you bad intel, when he was taking a risk just getting in contact?”
“No, I don’t. But we have no guarantee that he knows all there is to know about these folks and their operation. They may have more ships stashed somewhere to help with the assault, or some of the ships that reported mutinies put down may have just had mutineers with enough sense to acquire the Captain’s comm codes before they took over.”
“You do believe in Murphy, don’t you?”
“I’ve never seen it pay not to.” We managed to settle down and get some rest. The next thing I knew, Jeeves was shaking my shoulder. “Boss, it’s time to get up, if you want a shower and a cup of coffee before you’re due on the bridge.” I dragged out of bed, and got cleaned up. I went by the galley, to get some coffee and a quick breakfast. Jeeves must have called ahead, because Stella had breakfast waiting for me. I shoveled it down, and grabbed a transit for the bridge. Saucy called out, “Commodore on the bridge.”
I replied, “As you were. How are things in our little corner of the galaxy, Mr. Topper?”
“Proceeding peacefully, Boss. The Marines have put the previous management back in charge over on the Squirrel flagship, an
d no new ships have appeared so far.”
“How long do we have until Sue’s window for when the mutinous Squirrels might arrive?”
“Thirty minutes, Boss.”
“My ship, Mr. Topper.”
“I stand relieved.”
“Ruth, have you shared Death Blossom with the other ships?”
“I have. The destroyers had to modify the attack plan somewhat, as their mains don’t recharge as quickly.”
“Have you figured out some sort of coordination, so that we don’t wind up with two ships trying to attack the same enemy at the same time?”
“Yes, Boss. I can explain it, if you would like.”
“Are you confident it will work?”
“I am.”
“Good enough for me. Sue, have you seen anything out of the ordinary?”
“No, Boss. This part of space is quite boring, I’m afraid.”
“I only get afraid when it’s not boring, anymore. Saucy, any news from the scouts?”
“They check in every half hour, just so we know they’re still there, but they’ve yet to see anything.”
“Sue, have you sent your search methods to all the sensor operators in the fleet?”
“Yes, Boss, and Scotti reports all the carriers have the better sensors like the Shepherd. They draw too much power to be practical on the smaller ships.”
“Sounds as if we’ve done all we can to get ready. What am I missing, Mr. Topper?”
“Well, Boss, we could launch a fighter screen, in case they try to come out of FTL at a distance, and drift in.”
“Just make sure they are far enough out to leave the larger ships maneuvering room. When this party starts, there’s going to be a lot of dancing going on.”
Saucy said, “Message coming in, Boss. Captain of the Squirrel ship.”
“Put him on, please.”
“Commodore, thank you for putting my ship back into my control.”
“Truth be told, Captain, I was just worried about my friend, the Ambassador. Returning your ship was the easiest way to assure his well-being.”
“I have reviewed the log, and your attack on the ship was a thing of beauty. Do you suppose we could get together and discuss tactics, some time?”
