“Congratulations. How is our side project coming?”
“Which one? The reverse engineering has begun, as has Jane’s ferry.”
“The side one to the reverse engineering.”
“In progress. You know I’ll need a crystal for Jane’s ferry soon?”
“And for the other thirty seven operational ships I sent you, not including the hulks. We’ll need to upgrade them to Imperium specs as much as possible, and that will need a crystal for each, and somewhere to put it.”
“On that too. I’ll let you know. Doing Jane’s will show me where it can go. The Imperium dreadnaught crystals might fit. But since they were not actually designed for the ships in the first place, if you can change the size, we may be able to incorporate bigger ones.”
“I’m all for that. When you get them operational, they’ll need an Imperium ID, but have them identify as Thorn’s World Militia as owners. If we have to use them anytime, they need to be properly identified, or they might get fired on as being dinosaur ships. Jane can supply her own ID for hers.”
“You know you’ll need to come for the crystal creation and fitting?”
“Maybe not. Send me spacial co-ordinates in the system for the center of where you want them, and I think I can create the crystal there, from here. Better include dimensions of the space as well, and I’ll size accordingly.”
“Will do. Enjoy your breakfast before it gets cold.”
She left.
Thirty Nine
The closest fleet was well away from anything.
I moved eight of the ships, and we destroyed the other eight. Moving the crews involved a quick check I wasn’t building a huge mound of thrashing dinosaurs, but no, they were well spread out, with plenty of room for more.
A half an hour later, which I’d decided was the best interval so we didn’t overdo things, and allowed for rearming, the third fleet provided something more of a challenge. There was a small convoy of civilian ships fleeing before them, and the Rawtenuga fleet was definitely in range of their sensors, and possibly in long visual range. I selected the sixteen ships to take from the rear of the formation, which shouldn’t have been visible to anyone unless looking hard, and the other sixteen were destroyed so quickly after I doubt anyone even noticed some of them were not actually destroyed.
“Whoever that was, thank you.”
The message was received, but I decided not to answer it.
The fourth fleet was another sixteen, while the fifth was only eight, and looked like it was only there for recon. Six was another thirty two, and seven was sixteen. The eighth was the fleet which had left the planet which hadn't answered, and comprised sixty four ships.
By now everyone was getting a bit jump happy, and I’d upped my dark sun energy several times, so I called a halt to operations for an early and somewhat longer than usual lunch time. While I joined everyone for lunch, I wasn’t really paying attention, shoveling food while I was scrolling down a report Tamsin had sent me on supply levels. Judge was fine, but the destroyers were running out of magazine reloads.
I removed the screen, and just my looking around at them, stopped conversation dead.
“We need to resupply your ships from Judge. Ship AI’s will dock one at a time, and fill up. Until that’s done, everyone can stand down, but not leave Judge or the destroyers. We still have three fleets to go, and one of them is the titan fleet I sent all the escape pods to.”
“That’s cold,” said Mel.
“Can’t be helped. They started a war, and this is where it leads.”
“Are you okay Bud?” asked Jill.
“A bit tired. I’ll probably take a nap in my ready room until we’re ready to move again.”
They seemed to take this on face value, even though I had no intentions of napping. A little voice inside me told me I was lying too often these days, but I told it to shut up. I knew that. I didn’t need to be reminded of it.
Lunch over, I retreated to my ready room, leaving the rest of the team at the mess table. I was aware several of them were watching me leave, and that conversation resumed after I left. Aisha was popped up on my desk, waiting for me.
“I could use the first of your help on Jane’s new toy,” she said.
A pulse came in with the list of things to do, and most of it had nothing to do with Jane’s ship.
“I’ve time to do that now. I see you managed to find a hole big enough for the crystal?”
“Yes. I’m working on dismantling the other ship at the same time. I’ve got both of them on the ground now.”
She’d parked two one and a half kilometer long ships built in space, on the ground. Presumably without breaking them. I had no idea how that was done. Or even possible. But apparently it was.
“It’s actually quite easy. The dinosaurs are big, and they have a lot of living space down the whole ship length. If I had to guess, they’re a herd species, because there’s no privacy or individual quarters like our ships have. All I have to do is rip out a few levels, and the crystal will slot right in. Then I just need to figure out how to connect it to the ship systems, and enhance the shield emitters.”
“Is that all?”
She laughed.
“Not by any means. I need to strip away most of the armament, and all the generators and stuff for them, and then patch the hulls. Then I need to create new decks for seating, and cargo. It’s a bit of a puzzle, but fortunately I’ve found I enjoy puzzles.”
“Keep me informed. And keep Jane up to date as well.”
“Will do.”
She vanished.
Her list was quite long. She was quite specific about what she wanted ripped out of Jane’s ship, and even at this distance, I found I could view the ship internally, and simply make all the decks and bulkheads vanish, with the resulting mess being added to the ship debris in space. She’d supplied the method the mages were using for copying the crystals, and I compared the sizes with the hole available.
The titan crystals were too large, given the ships were five kilometers square, and the ship I was doing surgery on was only a bit over one and half kilometers long. Likewise, the dreadnaught crystals were way too small, given they were for a ship about half the length. So I concentrated on downsizing the titan crystal so it fit inside the hole I’d just made. One appeared exactly where I wanted it, although it was a bit smaller than expected. But given the crystals had a specific shape, the width and height available had defined the size more than the length had. I sent that snipped of information to Aisha for next time she started a design.
I moved it towards the engines more, leaving a major hole at the front, which would be perfect for fast loading seats from the front airlock. But I wondered how many stations would actually let it dock, given the length of the ship itself, and even its width. Not my problem though. Presumably Jane had a solution. And it was probably rift access, or special boarding tubes.
The next task was doing the same rip out job on one of the ships in the system, but this time I moved a collection of fabricators and repair droids to the space created. For now, I was losing a ship to create a base for upgrading the other ships. It would leave me thirty six available for immediate upgrade, but it was going to take time. And the first thing the fabricators had to make was the droid work force to do the work, and the salvage droids to feed ship debris to the fabricators.
While I was at it, I ripped the same holes in the other thirty six ships, and created crystals for each of them. There was more on the list of things to do, and I methodically worked my way down it.
By the time I finished, I was sweating profusely, and feeling light headed. I upped the amount of dark sun energy, but still felt a bit faint, so moved to the couch. I immediately fell asleep.
Serena woke me up two hours later, which was when I’d specified we’d get going again.
“Nice nap?” she laughed. Her face changed though, to concern. “You don’t look very good, Bud. You’re overdoing it. Aren’t you?”
“Maybe a bit, but I feel a bit better now.” I rose, felt a little light headed, and upped the dark sun energy yet again. “Let’s finish this.”
I strode out onto the bridge where the team were already waiting for me on the console. They all pretended not to notice me fumble with the chair restraints. Once buckled up, I looked at Tamsin, and nodded. We started jumping again.
Fleet nine was only sixteen, and took less than a minute. Fleet ten was thirty two, and took a bit longer.
Aisha as a butler brought me a drink, and I emptied most of it in one go, and slotted the bottle in the chair holder. Then she popped up on the console.
“Bingo!” she cried.
“What the hell is a bingo?” I demanded.
“Old Earth saying,” said Jill. “Means you completed something important.”
“Can we please stop with the old Earth sayings?”
No-one answered that.
“I’ve broken the Raw firewalls,” Aisha announced, looking proud of herself.
“Raw?” asked Woof.
“Raw. Rawtenuga?” she responded to him.
“Whatever,” I interrupted. “Do you have full access?”
“Yes. The computers are a joke in comparison to ours, but oddly the firewalls were first rate. Someone in their shipyards is very paranoid. For now, I can operate the ships as a ship AI, but it might be better if we get a ship AI to do it, given I’ve never been one. I figure for our purposes I really need to replace all of it, but if need be, we can now control them, given enough time to break in.”
“You mean we won’t be able to take them over like Jane used to do?” asked Jill.
What? Jane used to hack ships during a battle? That was something I’d not heard of.
“No. Well yes, if you have enough time. But for battle conditions, not worth the effort.”
“Takes all the fun out of battle,” said Woof.
There were various comments supporting that argument, but mainly muttered rather than spoken.
“Inform Jane. Better ask her if she wants to take her ship over as is, or authorize a full computer upgrade. Just do whatever she wants.”
“Will do.”
She vanished again. It was good news. In spite of how easily we were trashing them, they were formidable ships, and with a jump drive installed, I could use them as an emergency fleet against the Trixone. Pity we didn’t have the jump drives yet.
With the ship rearm complete again, we jumped to a position above the last remaining fleet.
This one was going to take longer.
Forty
“Admiral Jedburgh wants a word.”
I’d been about to set us moving on this last fleet, and the words from Tamsin caught me completely off guard.
“Did he say what it was about?”
“One does not ask a four star admiral what he wants. He’s waiting. Your ready room?”
“Yes.”
I made an attempt to get out of the chair, then unbuckled and tried again. The second time I made it, and stalked off the bridge. He was waiting on the desk. I closed the door behind me, and walked more sedately to my chair. His eyes followed me the whole way.
“Are you alright, Commander?”
“Very tired, sir. We’ve destroyed ten Rawtenuga fleets so far today, and was just about to do the last one we know about.”
“You what?”
He seemed surprised.
“We identified eleven fleets with the help of the locals, and have so far dealt with ten of them. Each fleet only takes us a minute or two to destroy, then a half hour break while the fighters rearm.”
“Who’s doing the magic?”
“Sharing it, sir.”
Sort of. I wasn’t lying. Gitte and Haynes were doing a lot of magic as well.
“Well from the look of you, you needed a break anyway. Are you time critical on the last fleet?”
“No, sir. It’s the last titan fleet we know about, headed towards its next target, but not in the right system yet. But I wanted to get it done, and then stand down until tomorrow.”
“Approved. But you can wait a bit longer before starting. I’ve some news you’re not going to like.”
I sighed loudly.
“Fair reaction. The Democratic Union are not the only ones who want you to be a review judge for them. Naranja also want someone with lie detection ability to replace Thorn, and I’m afraid the word you have that ability is getting around now. I’ve been informed unofficially the subject is going up to the full council for discussion.”
“You’re right, sir. I didn’t want to know that, and I don’t like it. What’s the Imperator’s position? Do you know?”
“He’ll argue against it. But he may not be able to prevent it. I thought you ought to know. If it’s any consolation and your participation gets ordered, you’ll probably end up being used for court marshals as well. Although I really hope we don’t need to have any more.”
“That would be ironic. I sit as judge on my own court marshall.”
He actually laughed.
“I’ll put my trust in the Imperator, sir. I can’t do anything else.”
“Nothing else we can do.”
Nothing else he could do. I nodded though.
“Carry on, Commander. I’ll expect a report on my desk sometime tomorrow, with the battle feeds.”
He vanished, and I sat there a moment. Leanne popped up.
“You want me to submit the report?”
“Maybe you better. Just the facts. Just the battle feeds.”
She laughed. The feeds would begin when we opened fire, and not a second before.
“I can do that.”
I sighed again, rose, and walked slowly back to my chair on the bridge.
“What did the admiral want?” asked Serena.
“Damned civilians want to make me a judge to replace Thorn.”
“They can’t do that!” exclaimed Mel. “Can they?”
“Maybe. That doesn’t mean they’ll be able to find me when they want me though.”
That caused everyone to chuckle.
Forty One
I took the time to plan this last battle.
It wasn’t as straight forward as the rest had been.
This armada had been collecting ships, in addition to escape pods. A number of the battleships looked like they’d had very fast and barely adequate repairs done to them, and I guess they were damaged as part of other fleets, patched up as best they could, and then joined this one. That was just going to be too bad for them.
When I looked inside the titan, I found the landers being prepped for deployment, and troops doing what troops did to prepare. With time not being critical, I had a good look around the inside of the ship itself. Like the battleships, there was no individual accommodations, just the basic areas to run all ship functions from, and a set of communal areas near each.
I hadn’t understood why they had such a large central space which was all grassland and small forests, but it was now starting to make sense. They didn’t enjoy being in ship spaces more than they had to, and so they built living areas to resemble the planet environment they preferred. The central area in a titan was like the grassy plains of one of their homes, only continued around a full curve held together by gravity, so the entire troop compliment spent as much time in open space as they could, before being loaded on the landers.
It wasted the middle of the ship, but they were landing a small army anyway, each time they deployed, and the waste probably didn’t bother them. In fact, they probably needed the wide open space to stay sane on a ship. Especially those enclosed on a bridge, in engineering, or doing maintenance in some very enclosed space. After their shift, I could see them heading for the wide open.
The battleships didn’t have the same setup, but their deck spaces were more than twice the height of ours, and certainly higher than they needed them to be. It also occurred to me the titans were around for another purpose, being there to provide an open sp
ace to ship crews who got too close to the edge of going nuts in an enclosed space, and couldn’t get down on a planet any time soon.
I was guessing of course, but it all added up to something which did make sense to me.
The lead ships were thirty two undamaged battleships. The titan followed them, with forty six ships after, of which only thirty two were undamaged.
The problem I had was I wanted the titan, but I needed to be seen killing it. Although, as I thought about it, one was probably enough. And if I needed another one, I could pick and choose any more we encountered in the future. Assuming we did. Which we might not. I sighed. I really had overdone it today. Still, last one.
I moved all the dinosaurs once again, took the front sixteen battleships from each formation, and then on a whim, took all three hundred landers from inside the titan. It belatedly occurred to me I could sell a Rawtenuga inspired destroyer sized landing craft to the Imperium, with only, hopefully, minor modifications. All of that took me only seconds.
The bombers jumped out, and we demolished the remaining battleships. I called a cease fire for a moment, while I changed the width of the outflow end of the rift to be the same as we were firing into. This spread our fire out a lot, but as I moved the rift around the still much bigger hull of the titan, the result was the same, only it took longer, and ran us right out of torpedoes. But I’d kept it up until all the major debris was reduced down to rubble and dust.
I let us sit there and survey what we’d done for a full minute, then called the home jump. We moved well away from the debris fields, and took the time to rearm properly, including the destroyers taking their last reload from Judge.
While that process was ongoing, I had Leanne prepare the report for the admiral, looked it over in my ready room, and satisfied the feeds showed nothing beyond fleets getting pulverized, sent it off to him. It was a day early, but now the job was done.
I’d collected two hundred and one enemy battleships, which no-one knew about but me. And I had plans for the extra one. Aisha already knew them. All she needed now was the resources to feed the fabricators.
Lieutenant Commander Spacemage (Imperium Spacemage Book 4) Page 17
