“Flight Command down loaded them before we left Captain.” Custern said puzzled. “Didn’t you order that sir?”
“Aaa, I was just testing you Custern.” Jack grimaced as he turned back around to look out the forward screen embarrassed and ashamed at yet more of his mistakes while being damn glad someone was using their head back at Flight Command.
Custern looked up as Jack turned away. Suddenly worried. While Jack had just been joking trying to cover his embarrassment, Custern came from a culture that failing a test meant instant death. He had been told that the humans did not execute for mistakes, then why was this officer suddenly testing him. For weeks now he had been out from under the threat of death at every turn and had finally began to accept the way freedom had made him feel. Putting a seemingly permanent grin on his face and ready to practically kiss the ass of most humans. Now, to suddenly be back under that terror was more than disturbing. Especially the fact that he had not even known he was being tested. It was one thing to die from failing a test but not to even know you were being tested before hand was beyond his comprehension. Hate started simmering in his mind as he stared at the back side of Jack’s head.
Jack had come up out of the cloud some distance from the pathway exit/entrance angling up over the top of it. The ring of torpedoes answering the IFF challenge expanded at less than half the speed of light as each torpedo took a few micro seconds to process and confirm before transmitting their down loads. A torpedo at the gate into the pathway suddenly lit up on the screen as the expanding ring reached it. Jack knew that it meant that the torpedo had information from other torpedoes further down the line.
Torpedoes lining the pathway started lighting up as the ring penetrated deeper and deeper into the cloud. Jack smiled since he knew that meant that a torpedo had attacked something deep inside the cloud along the pathway. He had weapons control on the Red Pepper program the torpedoes to move to the edges of the pathway at choke points as the Red Pepper penetrated deeper and deeper into the cloud during the Entrance Maze battle months before. Moving them from the random distribution the commander of the squadron that had entered the pathways ahead of Jack had programmed them for, afraid that the enemy ships following him would use them to find the entrance if he concentrated them around the path. The fact that wasted most of the torpedoes was beside the point evidentially. Jack realizing that if the enemy ships had found the torpedoes they had already found the pathway but the damage had been done already and by the time most of the torpedoes managed to make their way to the choke points the following Spider fleet had already found and entered the path leaving them behind. Forcing Jack to take the Fleet on by himself using the few torpedoes already in place to keep track of the enemy ships so he could ambush them with the Red Pepper. But that meant that now the torpedoes were where they need to be.
Jack waited for Custern to process the data and report as Jack fine-tuned the bombers course moving them closer to the wall so he could duck in and hide if he needed to once he knew where the enemy ship was. After a few minutes with nothing from Custern Jack turned around. “Ok Custern where is the ship?”
Custern’s eyes penetrated Jack as a simmering hate flooded from him. He finally looked down at his console and started working as Jack stared at him in shock. He could not believe the sudden change in the Gronk. Turning back around Jack swallowed, telling himself that he must be mistaken. That it was not hate or that the hate was for the enemy and not him. Yes that was it. For the enemy ship they were looking for.
The torpedo icons appearing on the screen deep inside the cloud changed as a ship appeared. The new icons showing what torpedoes had attacked the ship and their attack lines until they had detonated or been destroyed.
When Custern failed to deliver a report on the torpedo attacks Jack decided that he did not want to face the hate in the Gronks face again and accessed the information himself. The torpedoes had followed their programing and attacked the stern of the ship after it had passed them or turned toward another torpedo attack. Ignoring the bow of the ship. Jack watched over half the torpedoes getting destroyed as the ship passed them before they even tried to attack with most of the rest being destroyed before they could get close but a few did hit the stern knocking out several of the ships defensive guns and blowing big holes in the side as the ship turned its stern away protecting its single Drive engine that Jack realized was as long as the ship was running down its center. His mind flashing on the internal structure of the ship now that he knew which ship it was. The details of the ship being part of the massive down load when the Yeti Dumonts had tried to kill him. Jack realized that with an engine case 20 feet thick of the toughest armor the Spider ships had, there was no way the torpedoes could penetrate it hitting the hull of the ship another hundred feet from the engine casing. No, the only way they could even slow it down was to put one directly up its ass instead of just hitting it from the sides. He also realized that its ass was also easier to hit with most of its defensive guns on the hull sides and bow. Especially now that the sides had been hit a couple of times knocking out more of the point defense weapons.
“Custern, I need you to reprogram the torpedoes to move deeper into the cloud until the ship passes and then attack only from the very stern up into the engine. If they can knock out the engine we have them.”
Jack waited and then turned around as Custern stared at him. Hate filled eyes and mind started to overwhelm Jack before he finally said. “Yes sir!” And turned to his console.
Jack turned ignoring what he could not understand and started planning how to get down to the cloud and behind the ship before it got out of the passageway and into open space as the bomber finally stopped its race into space and slowly started acceleration back toward the entrance far below them at the bottom of the deep valley.
A few minutes later Jack realized that two more torpedoes had been knocked out before they had a chance to even fire while the one of several that had fired and hit the ship had hit its side again. Jack changed his screen over to the weapons screen to see that only half the commands to retask the torpedoes had been entered let alone transmitted. Jack started tapping away finishing the changes and then sent the new orders.
“What the hell is your problem Custern? Retasking the damn torpedoes was an easy job a moron could do, even me. Why you being so stupid all of a sudden?” Jack turned to look at Custern with a baffled smile that turned to shock as Custern turned to look at Jack meeting his eyes as the hated again flooded over Jack.
“What?” Stupid little me failed another one of your tests?” Custern reached over to the side of the panel at knee level and jerked hard. His muscles knotting up with the strain in his face as the handle he had grabbed came out of the panel with huge sparks arcing from the hole left behind as the bomber went dead. Looking back at Jack. “Now we are both dead not just me for failing one of your secret tests. Fact is give me another one so I can fail it too. At least this time I will know it was a test.” His face went blank as tears beaded up round his eyes. He had given up completely as he waited for death. His arms drifting up from the console in the Zero Gee of space with the gravcoils dead as well.
Jack listened in shock with his mouth open as Custern started chanting a prayer Jack’s mind said was the death chant students said after failing a test before they were thrown down the central shaft of the burrow tower to become food for the hatchlings on the bottom level. The prayer asked that they did not hit a hatchling further dishonoring themselves and that the Gods not waste any more energy on their stupid soles.
Jack turned forward not believing what just happened. That a simple stupid joke could do so much damage.
The main tactical screen in front of him came on with the words, “Emergency power.” Across the upper corner. The torpedoes were still feeding information to the bomber showing the ship still making slow progress toward the exit. He watched it take a side path as several torpedo’s hit its ass near its engine without seeming to damage the engine itself.<
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Jack watched it follow the path to the end then it seemed to hesitate for several minutes as Jack realized that it had not been attacked for a good half hour while it made its side journey. It slowly turned around. Jack now wishing he had not clustered all the torpedoes around the path. Leaving some along other paths to keep their interest.
Taking a deep breath Jack turned to Custern still catatonic in his seat. “Listen. I was only joking about the tests. I was not testing you. And even if I was, we do not kill even if you fail.” Jack shrugged. “Well maybe your career or take away your license but not your life.”
Custern did not seem to hear as he sat frozen still chanting.
Turning back around Jack spent the next couple of hours watching the ship work its way slowly toward the exit as it kept taking side pathways only to return within 15 to 20 minutes when it stopped getting shot at. Making Jack kick himself each time it returned to the exit path. Though with each attack Jack held his breath hoping the torpedo would hit up the engine to knock it out.
All one of the torpedoes had to do was collapse one of the artificial black holes the engine was using as anchors to push against as it came out of the back of the engine before it got far enough from the engine to do no harm when the artificial black hole collapsed and exploded releasing all the energy it had absorbed. But then that was one of the reasons the damn engine used a casing 20 feet thick besides needing the strength to contain the forces inside the shell created by the coils compressing space to create the Artificial black holes in the first place. All they needed to do was collapse and detonate one of those artificial Blackhole’s close enough to the engine for it to destroy the next coil and create a cascade of collapsing black holes up into the engine destroying it. But so far all they had managed to do was get a lot of torpedoes eaten up by the black holes.
Jack turned around to look at the catatonic Custern again before he tried to reprogram the torpedoes to attack from the stern but detonate on the side and maybe they could blow enough of the hull away to actually hit the damn engine casing and penetrate it. He knew that the torpedoes could penetrate the casing if several hit the same place on the casing. But when he tried to transmit the new orders the comm was not strong enough to reach even the nearest torpedo or sensor to have the orders passed down the chain.
Turning around Jack undid his harness so he did not have to look over his shoulder as he turned. “Damn it Custern. I was only joking about the test. I was embarrassed and mad at myself for failing to make sure we had the IFF and activation codes for the torpedoes before we left the ship only to find out that the Flight Command had given them to us anyway. Which was their job. I realize now that I had not failed because I had demoted myself to simple bomber pilot. My job is piloting and making sure we kill that damn ship before it gets away. Your job is to help me do that which you were exemplary at. Making sure we had everything we needed was Flight Commands job and not mine. It is human to feel embarrassed and ashamed when we think we have failed even though it may not be warranted. We don’t go out and kill ourselves for it. Well, usually not anyway. Telling you I was testing you was only a human joke at my not knowing Flight Command had given us the codes Custern. Not a real test of any kind. We humans don’t do that. Nor do we kill for failing tests when we do give them. Tests are how we know what we don’t know and need to learn and nothing more.”
Something floated over Jack head as he talked. Then shaking his head at the comatose Gronk as he ran out of things to say. Jack shook his head and turned back around to stare at the screen showing the God currier ship making its way along the last of the passageways headed for the exit just as a Destroyer Icon appeared on it.
Jack could not believe it when a destroyer raced up the passageway firing its sickly pee yellow beams into the back of the Godship. Jack was surprised when the yellow beams started knocking great holes into the sides taking out turrets and missile launchers. But then it was only a currier and not a thickly armored battleship.
Jack realized that he had not seen any torpedoes attacking the ship for some time now in an area that had quite a few as close to the entrance as it was. In fact the Godship had turned around to go back the way it had come because of the torpedoes stopping their attacks.
Now as the Destroyer made its attack run, dozens of torpedoes attacked from every direction. The destroyer having taken over control from Jack to coordinate their attacks with hers. He having been too busy trying to get Custern’s help to repair the bomber to notice the Destroyer icon appear on the screen or the icons of the torpedoes lose their little tell tail hash mark saying he had control of them if he could just communicate with them.
Now most of the Torpedoes were getting through and blasting huge chunks out of the sides of the Godship with most of the weapons concentrating on the Destroyer. While the Destroyer raked its 8 inch guns up and down the sides of the ship taking out turret after turret with the help of dozens of smaller 5 inch and 3 inch guns at point blank range. The missiles swarming from launchers in the cooling fins was more spectacular than the Sims had ever shown.
Jack had never seen such a display of raw power before and started screaming. “You go get those bitches! Pound the cocksuckers!” But then he realized that not even the torpedoes were penetrating more than the outer hull even as devastating as they were to the Godships defenses.
The Destroyer made several passes until the Godship had no more guns left. The Destroyer taking several good hits but because of its thick leading edge armor and modular construction it was still battle worth. Taking up a blocking position toward the exit now behind the Godship as it poured its sickly yellow 8 inch guns into its stern. Now out of both torpedoes and missiles.
“No don’t stop there. They will know the exit is in that direction you idiot.” Jack yelled at the screen. “Damn it!”
Custern turned to look at Jack screaming at his screen and then looked own at his as Jack cursed the single star Admiral for not letting him upgrade the Destroyer guns of his wing.
“The damn upgraded 8 inch guns would have made short work of that fucking ship by now you complete ass nine moron self-righteous ass hole!” Jack pounded the canopy over his head as something drifted down across the screen as he stared at the attacking Destroyer. The object getting in his way.
Grabbing it he started to fling it across the cockpit and realized that it was the handle Custern had torn out of the side of the console. It resembled an old knife edged main switch bar he had seen in pictures. The ends of the bar were held in sockets on both ends that had been ripped out of the console. Looking more closely at it he realized that the sockets had clamps that must have been attached to large one inch thick wires on both sides. Someone had designed the assembly to be replaced. Probably when the knife switch wore out. Something that could not be done with solid state switches but then solid state switches never wore out. But then they did blowout with power spikes. Sometimes catastrophically blowing up a large part of the equipment or console with them. Not a good day for the console’s operator if the power spike was large enough.
Jack looked at the dead flight controls and back at the 6 inch wide foot long main power switch. Pulling himself up out of the cockpit he slid back over the top of the Weapons/sensor/engineering console in front of Custern that now watched him pass with vacant eyes though his head moved to follow him.
Jack dropped down to the hole in the lower cabinet of the console aft of Custern with his legs hanging up into the canopy. Custern looking down at Jack from his seat as Jack stuck his head up to the hole to look in, shining his hand light from his belt into it. Smiling jack looked up at the vacant eyes staring down at him. “We may not be dead after all Mr. Custern.” Jack carefully slid the switch back into the hole only to get kicked back across the narrow passageway into the side of the cockpit as a spark arced inside the cabinet.
“Damn that hurt.” Shaking his head Jack pulled himself back to the cabinet and carefully lined the switch up again with the inside wires
and tried pushing it slowly into the hole only to be thrown across to hit the side of the cockpit again as an electrical arc flashed inside the console.
“Damn that could get addictive.” Jack said with his face still wracked with pain as he pulled himself back to the cabinet. He looked inside the hole again and then at the switch several times trying to figure out a better way to do it but finally shook his head and tried carefully lining it up again but this time he rammed it in as hard as he could only to be thrown away from the cabinet even harder as smoke poured out of the hole smelling of ozone.
Custern reached over grabbing a fire extinguisher and sprayed it into the hole. Then looking at Jack baffled. “We are dead human. Why do you waste time screaming and torturing yourself when you could be making peace with your Gods?”
Jack looked up at Custern and frowned. “For one thing most humans believe there is only one supreme God for everyone including you old chap. Try reading our bible some time. As for being dead. I am still breathing and in spite of your belief, so are you.” Jack looked back into the hole in the cabinet that still had the remnants of smoke coming out of it. Blowing into it trying to clear it.
“You really were not testing me? I do not understand the joke. Why would you joke about testing?”
“Because as I said, we do not kill for failing anything including tests.” Jack took a deep breath. “Please forgive me for being stupid about your beliefs. See how stupid it is for killing someone simply because they make a mistake. There wouldn’t be any humans left if we went around killing each other for simple mistakes. Hell, we have too many other reasons to kill each other than something as stupid as that.”
Jack slid the switch back into the hole only to get knocked back across the cockpit yet again.
Custern looked at the stunned human shaking his head as he grabbed the switch that was floating free. He took ahold of the switch handle with one hand and the assembly with the other and twisted the handle counter clockwise 90 degrees and pulled. The center portion of the assembly came out of a frame leaving only the frame with the one inch thick wire clamps. Then hitting his harness release the Gronk turned over taking up the same position Jack had been in with his feet up into the canopy as Jack watched still half stunned.
Battleship Destroyer 2 (Battleship Destoryer) Page 19
