“You give the Humans a little help and l will help myself.”
Jack could not reach quite far enough under the table to keep from targeting at least one alien behind Yeti even though his chin was down on the table top. Thinking about sliding out of the seat and down under the table Jack wondered if he could get away with it before Yeti realized what he was doing. Wondering if he could get far enough under the table before Yeti managed to finish killing him with her mind.
“Sorry Yeti my childhood friend, but it will take all the help we can give them.”
Jack heard a loud bang as a hole appeared out Yeti’s head along with a black burn mark in the overhead. Yeti’s body flopped down head first onto the table. With the hole in her head staring at Jack. Pan lifted a pistol up and placed it on the table taking her thumb out of the trigger guard and her fingers from around the back of the pistol grip. Jack realized that she had evidentially held it down under Yeti’s chair with it pointed up at her butt and the overhead where the laser beam would harm no one but Yeti.
Gutner Dank came running across the mess deck with a troop of Red Apes. Sliding to a stop with his gun pointed at Pan as he looked at what little remained of Yeti. “Captain Turner, I felt head ache from overseer trying to control someone. I came as fast as I could. I don’t have head ache anymore so the mind control has stopped. God Officer Orders are to kill all Overseers’ insight when we feel the mind control. Do you want me to kill this Overseer as well?”
“No.” Jack stood up from his chair as he rubbed his temples. “No. Pan killed Yeti before she could kill me when she found out I could not be influenced.”
Gutner Dank breathed a sigh of relief. “Good. I like Pan and killing her would have made me sad.”
Pan looked up at Gutner Dank and smiled. “I like you too Gutner. I am glad you did not simply kill me before you asked. Thank you. I know how hard that was for you.”
“Any other Overseer and I would have killed them as soon as I entered the compartment before I got even close.” Frowning as he looked at Pan through squinted eyes as he thought for a few seconds. “You are welcome.”
Turning to Jack. “We will have the rest of the ship’s overseers rounded up in a few minutes Captain.” Glancing at Pan and smiling as he turned back at Jack. “Is Pan the ship’s Prime Overseer now Sir.”
“Well, yes I suppose so if she wants the job.” Jack took a few steps down the table that had been mostly deserted as soon as Yeti had started her attack on Jack.
Pan looked around the mess deck as she got up from the table stepping away from the mess left in the chair as several workers took the body away and started cleaning the table and chair. Pan looked at Jack as she followed him toward the hatch and took another seat with her plate. “Well. Yes I suppose I will accept the job for now Captain. But only if I can turn it over to someone else when I find someone suitable for the task. I was hoping Yeti would eventually see and understand the opportunity you humans have offered us but all she could see was Masters and slaves.”
Jack took a seat at the same long table across from her. “Don’t feel too bad about it Pan. We have had a long history of slaves not being able to handle freedom and the responsibilities that come with it. Some people like the safety of someone caring for them and not having to think for themselves. While others can only think of getting the power for themselves. Some think freedom only means that they have to grab the power before someone else does and then treat everyone else as badly as they were treated including killing anyone that disagrees with them or threatens that power. That was all they knew in the past and can’t conceive of anything different. They can’t understand that freedom means compromising and that if what you want to do is not possible today it can be tomorrow. That losing one election is not the end of the world and they may win the next if they just learn to compromise. Sometimes it takes a generation or two for the cultures mindset to accept freedom.”
“Very well Captain. I hate to say that you make sense but I don’t understand it.” Shaking her head in a copy of what Jack had a habit of doing as she took another bite. “I have much to do including getting your humans out of hibernation so they can start helping with their own quarters now that they are not just slave cells.” Noticing Jacks change of face at that statement. “Yeti was keeping them until she had driven you and the Apes off the ship to use as her personal slaves. I warned her that was not going to work and hoped again that she would change her attitude in time.” Smiling at Jack. “I also have much work to do switching work crews from Yeti’s Palace to converting the Ape Decks to quarters for everyone.”
“What? I thought that all your labor has been going into hull repairs, cleaning up Ape remains and getting this ship cut off from its imbedded shield deck, the God Guns and repairs to its maneuvering engines, so we can move this hulk.”
“I am sorry for the misunderstanding Captain but it only takes a few hours to disconnect a shield deck, cut the God Guns loose and move the ship. Yeti was not interested in moving the ship until you and the Apes were off it. She was more interested in new quarters for herself while we built the factory to produce the needed propulsion engines.”
“What do you mean propulsion engines? Why are you not simply making repairs to the thrusters you already have? The thrusters I looked at last week did not look damaged or in that bad of shape. ” Jack got a suspicious look on his face. With everything that was going on he had taken it for granted that they were busy making thruster repairs. “Aren’t you repairing the existing thrusters?”
“No Captain. Simply repairing the existing thrusters would take us months to make the journey around the bubble. Besides Yeti wanted something that would make it possible to out run most of your ships once they got into the Nebula cloud. Don’t worry Captain I was not planning on letting her escape. The Engines we are now starting to build are 10 times as big as the existing thrusters using cloud material for reaction mass and will propel the ship around the bubble in less than a week. Though it will take a couple months to build and install.”
Jack took another bight of his disgusting ration bar as the thought of all the food humans could eat that should have arrived by then back at the Red Pepper and the other spider ship hulk. Not to mention the death of Yeti even if the body was already gone and decided that he was no longer hungry. “Pan, I want to know how long it will take you to repair enough of the existing thrusters to get this ship moving. I don’t give a flying fuck how fast but I want it moving tomorrow. You can forget about the new engines. Once this hulk gets around the bubble it is not going anywhere soon. We have other things that need to be done.”
Pan looked at Jack as she picked up another big fork full of a big leafy salad with chunks of strange vegetables covered in something that looked like Thousand Island dressing. “Yes Captain, we will start working on repairing the existing thrusters.” Then stuffed it in her mouth and started chewing.
Shaking his head Pan suddenly looked like the typical dock superintendent his father was always meeting that loved to give smiling lip service to requests and then went and did as they pleased ignoring the requests of the customer. Jack knew it had to be his reaction to Yeti’s be trail and death but was to tired and hungry to care. Tapping his wrist comm, Jack tried to keep from growling. “Mr. Weaver, get me the Red Pepper please.”
The Ensign looked over at Jack with a worried frown as she sat down next to Jack and took another bight of her emergency ration and washed it down with something resembling orange juice, the only thing that had been cleared so far by the aliens for human consumption other than water. She opened another can and slid it over in front of Jack and said. “Drink this, it will put something on our stomach and make you feel better. Not such a grump.”
“Yes Captain. I will patch them through as soon as I get them.” Jack’s wrist speaker said.
Some 20 seconds later the Red Peppers First Officer Commander Wilson appeared above Jacks wrist as he put the can down half empty. “How can I help you
Captain?”
“Besides getting us some descent food over hear. I need as many of the engineering department personnel as you can spar as soon as possible. I think we know enough about the alien tech now to repair this ship’s maneuvering thrusters. I think I may even have a few improvements we can make to up their power.”
A few seconds later the face of the First Officer lit up as Jacks words finally reached him and his response returned. “With the help of all the aliens, the Red Pepper is in top shape again Sir. I could bring the whole ship over Captain. Along with a couple thousand alien volunteers. But as far as the food goes, it seems we are still on our own. No transports have shown up yet. One of the Destroyer Captain’s said that as soon as the Vice Admiral reported to The Rock that we were attacking a Spider Battleship, the transports heading for us turned around and went to some holding station. You sure you don’t want to ask the Destroyers for some of their rations? We are down to two MRE’s a day.”
“They wouldn’t have enough food amongst them to make a difference. Hell even MRE’s sound good compared to the emergency ration bars and nutrition pills we are eating here. And by the way we have an additional 50,000 captured humans that will be coming out of hibernation shortly that we will need to feed. As far as moving the Red Pepper, I need you to stay and keep a close eye on that hole in the bubble. We left a half dozen Spider ships inside that thing and I don’t want them or a boat escaping if they somehow managed to survive the heat.” Shaking his head. “You better cut rations down to 1 MRE a day with emergency bars and nutrition pills for the rest.” Jack tried not to look at the feast around him. He was glad he had segregated his crew during meals. It was all he could do to keep from reaching across and stealing some of the alien bounty sitting across the table from him. Even if it poisoned him.
The First Officer frowned. “Eye sir. I will send over a load of MRE’s with the crews. One MRE a day should give us another couple of months off the top of my head even with the new refugees but I will get back to you on that. We have pickets and sensors saturated around that hole and the probes have yet to report back any signs of life even though two of the ships are still powered up Sir. I think we can safely say that they are dead Sir.”
“They were supposed to blow themselves up. No. I am afraid not Commander. Not while even one ship is still showing power. Keep your guns trained on that damn hole even if the damn Spider ships are too damn big to get through the hole. And don’t let up on the patrols scouring the surface of the bubble around the hole and the hulk.” Smiling. “Oh that is right, we are calling it Gama 13 Station now in the dispatches back to The Rock. I was hoping that with this Spider Battleship hulk in our hands they would speed up shipments of supplies but it looks like I was wrong.”
Jack was thinking about taking another bight of his ration bar when the Frist Officer finely came back. The orange drink was helping hide the taste. “Well the ex-slaves are taking it to heart Captain. You should see what they have done to the hulk since you left. You won’t recognize it.” Looking back up from his console as he issued orders to dispatch the crews and MRE’s. “OH. The Bigfoots heard one of the Tramp Captains on a destroyer talking about wishing he could haul cargo instead of just a bunch of mass drop tanks and have produced large 200 foot long, 20 foot wide, 10 foot tall squat cargo pods that fit up in place of several drop tanks with an access tube up through and emergency hatch in the belly of the destroyer. We can use several to have the engineering crew and some exslave volunteers and their tools over to you in a few hours Captain.”
“Very good Number One.” Jack frowned. “What the hell is this about getting gossip from a Destroyer Captain? Why haven’t you talked to the Rock yourself to find out about our supply problems?”
“Aaa I am sorry Captain but it seems that when they heard of another Spider Ship over hear, The Rock cut all communication channels to us. We can’t even get the weather report sir. I sent you a report on the situation. Though I did not flag it for your immediate attention.”
“Ya well I have been a bit busy over hear.” Shaking his head. “Well Number One, have you tried going through the damn Destroyers to contact The Rock and get us our damn supplies?”
“Yes sir and I have not heard anything back yet sir. It sounds like The Rock is going crazy from what the Destroyer Captains are saying but I am having a hard time getting much out of them. It’s like they have been told to limit their contact with us as much as possible even though we have several Destroyers doing maintenance docked to the station. I am having a hard time even talking to the Commodore of the Squadron that came back here after you took the Godship. He is always busy so I have only been able to talk to the DD’s in for maintenance.”
“What the hell do you mean maintenance? They are brand new Destroyers fresh from the shipyard if I understand things right. Are you upgrading their weapons or engines or something?”
“No sir. I don’t think the Destroyer crews even know about our little upgrades but then they are simply having problems keeping their engines running not to mention their weapons. It seems their 8 inch twin gunned turrets are constantly breaking down and if they did not have two engines, most would not even have been able to make the station. I am starting to get the impression that the maintenance crews don’t know shit about their equipment or how to read a damn maintenance manual. I don’t know where they are getting their crews from but they must be dredging the bottom of the barrel. They have been a constant problem on the station. I am about ready to ban them back to their ships. All they seem able to do is get drunk and start fights with the exslaves. Even fights with the Apes which they keep losing. I am still trying to figure out where they are getting the damn booze from. Though the exslaves seem all to ready to provide them with anything they want and several dives have sprung up catering to their lowest desires. The exslave or refugees are taking whole heartedly to this free trade shit.” The First Officer shook his head in exasperation.
“Well shit. We have more important things to worry about than a few drunks right now.” Jack looked at Pan and then the compartment which was packed again with what looked like a dozen separate kitchens scattered around the bulkheads, all cooking or preparing different foods. “We need to start calling the ex-slaves something besides exslaves or refugees. Give it some thought Number One and see what you can do about informing the aaa, Translator Overseer over their about some of our human darker sides. That they should not be catering to some of our lower more despicable needs even if it can be rather profitable. And get through to The Rock somehow. We need our damn supply ships. Turner out.”
Shaking his head as he turned to face Pan. “Pan, we need a name to call you besides aliens or ex slaves. Something besides Green foot or Wetback or Bluebelly or Twoheads or the dozens of other terms we have been using for each of your many species. Got any ideas?”
Pan looked across at Jack. “We will give it some thought Captain. Though we understand why you do not wish to use our given names for our many specie even if you could pronounce most of them. My species names comes close to Dumont in English by the way but I believe you are referring to all the many different species that were slaves as a whole. I do not think I can help you there except to suggest you simply call us crewmen Captain.”
“Aaa, I am afraid there are a few problems with that Pan.” Taking a breath and then a bight of his Emergency Ration bar just to give himself time to think. His face making a grimace at the spiced cardboard taste flooding his mouth again as he chewed what was almost too hard to chew.
Finally swallowing Jack took a deep breath. “For one, you would have to sign up or enlist into the Republic Navy for me to do that. I won’t even get into how we could make any of you into officers in under 4 years. That would also open your people up to being transferred all over the fleet if Command would even approve of your enlistments. Then there is the fact we could not enlist your families though we would take care of them and again you would probably be separated from them for extended pe
riods of time as all the Navy’s human and existing alien crewmen are. Not to mention there is a lower age limit. From what I can see, some of you are still babies at 20 years while some are adults at 5 years. Also the alien’s already in the Republic are close to human in most ways including being able to eat the same food.”
Looking at the cornucopia of different wonderfully smelling but poison to human’s food around him and shaking his head as he looked at the Emergency Ration bar with distaste yet again. “God! This is simply disgusting”. Flinging it toward a trash chute on the bulkhead some 20 feet away in disgust. Hoping as it left his hand that he at least missed the exslaves between him and the chute. “Fact is, not being able to eat most of the same foods is a big show stopper.” Jack’s mouth dropped open with him half out of his seat heading to pick up the tumbling food bar (when he inevitably missed) as the half-eaten bar sailed into the chute that automatically opened with its approach. Chuckling he finished getting up. He had things to do anyway and the last thing he wanted was being around and smelling all the food. Especially what smelled like an old fashion grilled steak at the next table?
Jack smiled as he looked around at all the food and still could not believe he had not been poisoned the first day on the original hulk station months before when he had tried so much food while being introduced to all the different races of slaves during the celebration for defeating the God Ships and freeing them. Though Pan had explained that he had not had more than a symbolic nibble of any one food or sip of anything other than flavored water to drink and even then each had been tested to not be outright poisonous to humans in small bits by then. They were still trying to find something the humans could eat more than a bight of without killing them while most were outright poisonous with even a nibble. Including the salad Pan loved.
Battleship Destroyer 2 (Battleship Destoryer) Page 9
