“Captain.” Pan’s eyes went from the garbage chute to Jack. “I believe we understand what enlisting entails. You have what you call petty officers while some work to meet your Officer qualifications. We understand that our freedom has come at a high price and are willing to pay whatever it takes to help maintain that freedom for our children.”
Glancing at the ration bar the Ensign was still gnawing on and then the garbage chute. “I am sorry Captain but we did not realize that you are practically starving to death. We have been trying to figure out why you humans have been eating so little and such deplorable food. Thinking that you preferred your energy pills and such retched food as your nutrition bars, we have been taking our time testing our foods for your consumption. It is good to finely understand that you hate your food bars as much as we do when we tried them even if they are safe for us to eat. We will put testing our food for something you can digest without being poisoned at the top of our priorities Captain.”
As Jack starred at Pan, the Ensign spoke up. “Thank you Pan but it took engineers hundreds of years to genetically modified human food stocks to appeal and be digestible to all the alien species across our neck of the woods. Which is why your tests show you can eat most of it with only a few vitamin supplements. The economics and profit of food that all the different species could eat more than paid for the development costs over the hundreds of years it took to develop and succeed. The likelihood of your food from tens of thousands of light years away being compatible with humans is very slim. Especially with you having to grow different foods to feed the many species aboard your ships.” Shaking her head. “As advanced as you people are, you would think you would have developed food that was more compatible with each other over the last 10,000 years.”
Pan bowed to the Ensign. “Your food was genetically altered to be compatible to most of your species? That explains why so many of us can eat your MRE’s and those horrible Emergency Rations. Though some love them. We had never even thought of the possibility of genetically altering our food but even then research and development by slaves was punishable by death. The God Officers used the different food dependencies as weapons against us. A very effective tool for control. Watching a fellow slave race starve to death because they failed to keep the Gods happy is a great motivator.” Pan looked around the mess deck at all the different species. “You may be right Ensign but amongst all our differences we should be able to find something humans can eat that tastes better than your Emergency Rations and will keep you alive.”
“You do that Pan.” Jack said trying to keep the disbelief out of his voice. “I am going to get started on your thrusters. I want this ship moving by tomorrow. We have been given orders to destroy any ship on this side of the bubble. As close as it is to the edge of the cloud, it is too great a security risk and I have had enough of destroying perfectly good ships or in this case something we can us as another station. Beside we simply don’t have room on the other hulk station for another 30,000 exslave refugees.” Frowning. “Or the 50,000 human captives for that matter.”
Pan stared at Jack’s and the Ensign’s back as they left then took out her pad and started tapping and talking into it.
Jack grabbed a tool belt and several mechanics from the Ex-Enemy Assault Boats they were using to operate from. They arrived at the nearest stern thruster assembly on the hull that had been red tagged as out of service the week before, shortly before a red headed Greenfoot arrived at a deck jarring run. Her ship’s work suit unzipped down to her navel as usual.
Out of breath she held her hand across her chest as she bent over and tried to talk still out of breath. “Sorry Captain to have missed chow. I was trying to figure out how to get at least one of the main propulsion engines working. I didn’t think you would want to leave this ship stuck here for any longer than you had to.”
Jack looked up at her with sudden hope as she took in several deep breaths trying to catch up. “Ok, and what did you find Red?”
Looking over and then down at Jack as she straightened up shaking her head with an all too human grimace. “Sorry Sir but there simply is too much damage to all the same components on the two half way good engines to swap assemblies around and make even one operational. If an engine was running when your weapons penetrated the case, the Blackhole’s basically ate the guts completely out of them. But of the engines that were not running are still in one peace, I think that one of the engines on the other ship may have what we need but that is not helping us here and now and it could take months even if they do. Pan just called saying we don’t have the time and that you shut down the engine factory to produce repairs for the maneuvering thrusters.”
“Yes you are right, we don’t have the time to trade main engine components Red but thanks for trying.” Turning back to the Thruster Engine’s control panel and making an attempt to understand the writing appearing on the screen as he stabbed at input keys. Pan had downloaded English into the Ship’s control systems but the ship’s computer had its own ideas for translating names and concepts. “Any idea why this thruster is redlined?”
Red looked over Jack’s shoulder as he slowly worked his way down menu’s and information screens. “Please Captain, my people designed these engines 10,000 years ago. Just because we have spent the last 10,000 years working as forklifts does not mean we have forgotten our heritage.” She gently nuzzled her huge breasts up into Jack’s back, putting her arms around him from both sides pushing his hands gently out of the way. She started typing through the screens as she placed her chin softly on his head. Even after 10,000 years the control panel still fit her large almost foot wide hands perfectly.
Jack could still not believe the God Officers had not bothered to reduce the size of the controls to fit the little 4 inch wide hands of the race of Dwarfs that they had assigned to maintain the engines for the last 10,000 years. But then he was not impressed with the intelligence of the Engine Maintenance Dwarfs he had seen so far. They only seamed able to replace simple assemblies and then only if the control software could figure out which assembly was the cause of the problem. Half the thrusters on the ship were none operational simply because the Dwarfs could not read between the lines of the software and make a few deductions or replace a module just to see if it helped. But then when you have a society that rewards mistakes with death, trying to make a guise as what component to replace was not a good idea let alone taking a module apart to attempt to fix some small failed component inside. Especially when you did not have a clue as to why or what made the engine run in the first place let alone what anything did inside the engine. Jack’s older brother Dan had been good at telling him and the rest of the Turner Joy’s crew that any monkey could replace modules when told to. Which made Dan’s’ younger stupid moronic brother (Jack), perfect for the job.
Jack was starting to realize just how much his older brother must have hated him. But it had taken Jack running away from his Tramp Ship the Turner Joy to join the Navy and working with people that actually liked him to realize that. With Red’s big arms around him and her soft soothing voice patiently explaining the maintenance controls of the engine, Jack found himself wondering how he could ever have thought his older brother had ever loved him with all the abuse and broken toys.
Jack suddenly remembered lashing out at crewmen when he first started playing The Battleship Game his grandfather had given him on his 6th birthday so many years before. The Game had been developed over hundreds of years by the Republic Navy to train Officers but had grown beyond anything the Navy had ever dreamed. His grandfather had stolen a copy when he had resigned from the Republic’s Research Directorate. Though Stolen was a harsh word since he had helped develop the programing. After hundreds of years and thousands of Psychologists adding their input, The Game was very good at changing bad behavior for the better if given enough time and after some 10 years the Game had had plenty of time to mold Jack into a good officer. The Game had been very good at punishing and manipulating Jack every
time Jack had lashed out copying his brother’s cruelties and greed or thrown a tantrum as young kids tend to do. The Game had taken it all in stride without Jack having a clue as he was manipulated, trained and shaped into the best Officer he could be. The Game devoting more and more resources to Jack as he developed and his command and tactical abilities became more apparent. But then The Game did that for all those that excelled.
The problem was that so many of the Navel crews while playing the game as civilians before bootship, saw little need to take the time to participate in their busy days in a navy that had to send ships out with short overworked crews in the beginning. A rapidly growing problem only a few Admirals were trying to address. One of those Admirals was Jacks original Commander who had originally promoted Jack simply as a way to stimulate the ship crews to take the time to play The Game (never thinking he would ever command a ship). To create the enlisted and commissioned officers to Command the hundreds of thousands even millions of raw dirt side recruits that were flooding into the navy that had never even been into space let alone on a ship and would have little more experience than what Bootship and a few weeks in A-school could teach them. Though what the Admiral had not yet grasped was that tens of millions of possible Dirtside recruits yet to enlist had spent years playing The Game across most of the Human Planets in the Republic.
Though many of the current recruits manning the Destroyers had not played The Game outside of Bootship which was why they were assigned to the Destroyers as the Directorate of Personnel divided up the available crewmen to the various new ships that needed crews. Taking most of the best and brightest for the Fleet’s new Battleships. Then scraping the bottom of the barrel for the Destroyers no one ever believed could make much of a dent against the enemy but the Destroyers were cheap enough to not matter while they zipped around so the many planets populations and politicians could see something defending them while the main fleet was nowhere in sight. Each planetary system getting a hundred of the destroyers as the small ships flooded off the robotic assembly lines.
The Game had even recognized the hate the Ensign had had for Jack almost immediately after she had been raped. Using The Game controlled virtual crewmen to ask pointed questions. It also recognized that Jack had not been the cause of her problem but that the Ensign had blamed Jack for it anyway. The Game had spent many years slowly turning her savage hateful treatment and hate for herself each time she met Jack in The Game into something else even though she did not know what until long after she had followed him into the Navy seeking what she had still thought of as revenge. That is until The Game had thrown them together again. The Game knew how to get the most out of each of its crewmen and officers even if The Game could not control what Jobs they were assigned or where the Navy sent them. The Game was a secret weapon even the Navy did not know it had though Jack’s Grandfather (everyone including those that knew him when he ran the Research Directorate called Pop), knew since he had been responsible for adding the final touches to The Game and connecting it directly to the Navy’s Central Personnel Assignment and Control Network before releasing it to the public to train millions of future crews. Pop even started to notice the quality of the Tramp crews raise markedly over the years after he released The Game into the civilian universe for even the tramps to play and who benefited from the extra training.
The Ensign stood not far away watching the small red headed green skinned giant with her arms around Jack and her bare boobs pressed into his back with the front of her jump suit now unzipped down to her crotch as the Ensign started fingering her stun gun. She knew Red was only helping teach Jack the maintenance system for the Alien ship and she did not have to worry but she could not help herself. She even liked Red and loved spending time with her and her little sister around the Hulk Station before they had to come on this mission. But… She clasped the butt of the stun gun tighter as her hand started to sweat. Her mind starting to turn dark with jealousy inspite of her belief and trust in Jack.
Turning around she started looking at the huge thruster that looked as big as the main drive engines on the Turner Joy yet it took 30 of them to turn and maneuver the monster Spider Battleship and was not designed to take it anyplace. Yet Jack was planning on doing just that. “But then what choice do we have with no tugs around but to get as many of the dam thrusters working as possible and moved to the stern.” She asked herself. She just hoped that the additional maintenance crewmen being brought in by the Destroyer could… “Destroyer! Jack!” The Ensign yelled.
Jack suddenly ducked out from between Red’s arms. His head rubbing against her bare boobs as the open jump suit tried to suck him into it and her boob yet again. He ducked down and his cheeks and neck turned deep red as he faced the Ensign. “What? I wasn’t doing anything. She was just showing me the…”
“Not that you numbskull. The Destroyers! We can use the Destroyers as tugs to push the ship. We have 2 full 12 ship squadrons working out of the Hulk Base unless they pulled them back to The Rock with the rest of the Wing in the last couple of days. Which they shouldn’t have with a new 72 ship Destroyer Wing arriving from Earth according to the latest dispatch.” Smiling from ear to ear. “Each of them has 2 cruiser engines. We don’t need to fix and move all these damn thrusters. We just need to slap the destroyers up against or lash them to the sides of the stern hull of this monster and use these thrusters for directional control.”
Jack stared at her for a good minute thinking as Red turned from the console.
Red smiled. “I know what is wrong with this Thruster and I think I can easily fix it Captain Jack.”
Jack turned to Red with his eyes still glazed over staring at Red’s naked eye level bright red nipples on the end of her green tinged breasts without seeing them as he grinned from ear to ear. “Ya great Red. See what you can do to get the ones on the Port side going so we have a balance around the ship operational by tomorrow while I go and grab us some tugs.”
Red’s mouth dropped open for several seconds. “What? You want me to actually fix the thrusters by myself? But I am only an Apprentice. I won’t be a Journeyman for another 20 years.”
“Yes, I expect you to get as much help as you need to get the job done. And yes I think you can fix the thrusters. That is if you choose the right help and get your butt thruster going instead of standing here talking. You have a whole cargo tank load of help coming to go with whoever you and Pan get working from here so you should not have any problem but give me a call if you do.”
Red lunged forward embracing Jack squishing his head between her boobs after her suddenly protruding bare left nipple stabbed him in the eye. “Thank you Captain I will make you proud of me.” Then she ran out of the thruster room shaking the deck as she went.
Jack held his hand up to rub his eye as he turned around to the Ensign. “God. That woman’s tits are lethal.”
“I will give you lethal tits!” As she pulled the stun gun out and fingered it up to maximum but Jack was already ignoring her as his eyes glazed over in thought.
Jack taped his wrist comm. “Lieutenant Weaver, get me the engineering specks from the Red Pepper, on those new destroyers that have been running around here for the last few months. I will be there in a few minutes.” Then sent a text to Pan that he was headed for the Assault Boat they had been using as a Command Center for taking the hulk and a Communication Center to the Red Pepper on the other side of the Bubble.
Five minutes later Jack crossed the huge lock with the Assault boat hanging half out through the Aircurtain so its Comm antenna’s had a clear unobstructed sight of the closest of the Comm relay Sats they had planted as they made their way around the bubble during their attack. Pan exited the distant hatch in the core of the ship as Jack looked back before entering the Assault boat’s hatch making Jack smile as she glided rapidly across the lock toward the Assault boat. He had not expected her to be so prompt as he still had a lot of work to do going over the Destroyer’s plans to figure out how to attach the little Sh
ips to the hulk but then he should have known batter, he told himself as he went on into the shuttle. Lieutenant Weaver had the front page of the Destroyer Schematics up on the tactical screen as he entered the Command module taking up part of the troop and cargo bay of the Assault boat.
Upon seeing the screen Jack froze. He had seen the little Destroyers several times from a distance as they buzzed around the Red Dwarf and now the Hulks and bubble and had been a little surprised that they vaguely resembled the virtual Arrowhead shape of the destroyer he had designed and built in The Game years before. He even had put down the fact that they were armed with 8 inch guns like he had on his virtual destroyer he had in The Game as coincidence. But now to actually see the design schematics with all the finer details matching his Virtual Destroyer exactly spread out across the screen more than shocked him as he stood there frozen in place as the Command Center started filling with people.
The Ensign stopped beside Jack rubbing her shoulder up against Jack as she looked at him staring at the screen. “Are you Ok Captain? That looks a lot like your Battleship Destroyers in The Game. Did you get your design from the Navy?”
Jack slowly looked over at the Ensign then back at the screen without saying a word for half a minute. Then taking a deep breath. “They had to have gotten the design from me. Which means I have to be crazy. How the hell does the navy have hundreds of them running around.”
The Ensign stepped to the console and started running through the pages of the design details and plans.
Battleship Destroyer 2 (Battleship Destoryer) Page 10
