“As I said Ensign. I am Captain Turner’s personal assistant and the ship’s AI even if I am virtual.”
Turning back around to face the Steward. “Just a massage? With your clothes on?”
“Since you obviously had a camera watching him. You know I had my clothes on Ensign.”
“No she did not have a camera watching him.” Jeeves said. “I would have detected any such device.”
The Ensign looked back at the hatch and smiled. “He does look damn relaxed.” Taking a breath. “Damn he is so sweet and sexy looking when he is asleep.” Turning back to face the Steward as she put her pistol away. “Sorry Grandma. I guess I am a bit tired. Been up a good 36 hours now trying to catch up to him. Admiral Halsey is going to kill me for letting him sneak away to assault that damn hulk without me.” Turning to face the hatch again as she leaned against it. “Just let me in so I can go to bed Ok.” Shaking her head as tears started flowing. “I thought I had lost him there when we finally got here and found him in the middle of a fucking battle. That damn assault boat took forever to get docked to that damn ship. I am going to kill him again for leaving me behind and not terminating the Sim I was in early.”
“How are you able to see the Captain from here Ensign?” The Steward narrowed her eyes at the Ensign.
Fear suddenly crossed her face as she turned away and wiped her face. “Just a lucky guess Steward.There are three bulkheads and a suit closet between us that even cleans the suit? How fancy can you get? So I could not have seen him. Now let me in. I am beat. That is an order Chief.”
“No Ensign. The Captain needs his sleep not a role in the sack. Go back to your own cabin.”
“My cabin is with Captain Turner. Admiral Halsey’s orders. I am his body guard and I have been doing a shit pore job lately as you can see. Now let me in.”
“How do you know the layout of the cabin Lieutenant? You have never been to this part of the ship since the refit and the ships new schematics are not on your PDA?” Jeeves said. “I am going deeper into your records we have downloaded from The Rock and what a surprise. Your records from the other ships Jack has been assigned show that you have indeed been assigned to the same cabins since First Class Turner was assigned to design the new battleship massless drive engines and that is your official orders.”
“MMM… I also have a secret record of Ensign Turner seeing a dark nebula cloud before the ship sensors did. He would have had to have seen it through the ship’s hull since there are no direct outside ports on the Bridge… Yes now I see. The Admiral’s very detailed ultra-secret report saying that Turner is able to see energy wavelengths normal humans cannot. Attributing the ability to both him and you Lieutenant, being Neutron babies. Your genetic maps showing that you both have a couple of genes that are turned on that most humans do not.” Jeeves seemed to pause. “You can see the Captain as we stand here can’t you Lieutenant?” Jeeves asked as Doctor Truitt’s mouth opened trying to talk but nothing came out.
Frowning the new Lieutenant turned to Jeeves. Yes, if I block out the ambient light. The less visual light there is, the finer the details and range I can see. And I am only a damn Ensign. I kept failing the damn pilot’s test. Now let me in please. I won’t wake Jack up. I am too damn exhausted to even be in the mood.”
“Bullshit.” The Steward said. “You thought you had lost him. You would fuck his brains out if he opened his eyes right now. Your desperate subconscious could even make sure he woke up so you could do just that by rubbing him in just the right places without thinking.”
Jeeves seemed to chuckle. “You have just been promoted Lieutenant and you are extremely sexually excited. What is called creaming your panties, I believe is the slang term.” Jeeves chuckled. “I will assign you a cabin nearby where you can take a cold shower and sleep. You can see him tomorrow Lieutenant. You got your pilot ratting months ago and your official promotion just came through with a flood of other promotions from The Rock before we lost communications.”
The new Lieutenant backed away from the hatch across the narrow passageway placing her back against the bulkhead and slid down it until she sat resting her chin on her arms across her knees over her huge breasts squished out around her legs staring at the hatch. A stubborn look on her face. “I am staying here.”
The Steward turned shrugging her shoulders and walked away as Jeeves disappeared. “Fine, suit yourself.” Stopping at the hatch to the elevator she looked back and shook her head. “Damn stubborn kid in love.” Walking back shaking her head the whole way, she stood next to the Lieutenant still with gold ensign tabs as the Lieutenant looked up with her eyes half asleep. “Come on and get up.” When the Ensign just shook her head (no) stubbornly. “I will take you in to sleep with the Captain.”
The Ensign sprang up from the deck wide awake.
“Jeeves open the hatch.”
The Ensign was already stripping as she walked through the hatch. By the time she reached the bedroom hatch she was totally naked and walking like a cat getting ready to pounce on its pray.
The Steward smelling the Ensign’s rising heat and shook her head as she followed. Grabbing the Ensign’s shoulder as she walked past the head, the Steward steered the Ensign through the hatch and into the Shower and closed the door. “A hundred and five again Jeeves.”
“Sure you don’t want ice cold Doctor?”
Chuckling. “No. Her screaming would wake the Captain and she would be even more excited when she recovered. No, we have to finish exhausting her body with heat until she has no choice but sleep. Just like we did with the Captain.” Looking down at her comm watch. “Please tell the Chief Surgeon that I will be a few minutes late.”
Twenty minutes later after using the head, she was putting an exhausted Ensign to bed only using the defused light from the head when the Ensign started trying to cover the wall clock with little success since there was nothing on the flat bulkhead to fasten the towel to.
“Its bright.” the Ensign mumbles were desperately pleading, almost crying.
“Jeeves can you turn the damn wall clock off please.”
“No but I can cut the power to that section of the Captain’s Sweat that will include the bedroom and head as well.” And then the lights from the head went out along with the wall clock.
Now in pitch black darkness the Steward heard the Ensign say. “Oh thank Godstar. Even the power lines are dark finally. I could get used to this.” As the Ensigns’ footsteps padded around the end of the bed, table and chair without hitting anything. With the rustling of the bed covers she heard the Ensign climb into bed and cuddle up to the Captain and start lightly snoring seconds later. The Steward stood there trying to figure out where the damn hatch was to the living room. Whishing she had her medical light in her breast pocket she used to check patients eyes and such.
After bumping into just about everything in the room she finally found the hatch and squeezed out trying to let as little light into the room as possible. Looking at the Ensign cuddling with the Captain for a second before closing the hatch. Finally in the cabins fully lit living room, she remembered the little handlight all crewmen were required to wear on their belts at all times just in case the ship lost power.
Chapter 14; Mass murder
Jack took a left from his day cabin in the number one fin of the Red Pepper and headed down ship along the fin. A minute later he entered the Briefing Compartment. Some 20 feet wide with clear viewing ports down each side along its 40 foot length. Jack sat down at the inside middle of the long horse shoe shaped conference table taking up a small portion of the center leaving most of the space at the ends of the compartment empty. The other seats at the table facing him forming the long oval around him to each side with the slightly rounded end pointed away from him.
The Hulk Basestation took up the lower half of the view outside the ports on each side of the conference compartment beyond the short curved hull with number 2 and 6 fins to each side. The bubble with the hole the Red Pepper had escaped thr
ough from the death trap inside the bubble was on one side a few miles from the station with the metal mining operations across the surface of the bubble between them. Just barely visible at the stern end on both sides of the Briefing Compartment was sections of the small clear bubble a mile across that was attached to the rock strewn surface of the monster bubble stretching into the distance. The inside of the smaller bubble was covered in luscious green foliage with strips of light meandering between the patches from the artificial fusion torch lighting and heating it at its center. A huge section of cloud was lit up off the bow of the Red Pepper from the light shining out of the escape hole in the huge bubble from a fusion torch that refused to go out simply because the Diamond inside surface of the bubble was reflecting 99.9999% of the energy and fuel given off by the fusion explosion back into the fusion core to keep it going.
A hole in the cloud at the center of the circle of light shining from the hug bubble had been eaten away by the gasses jetting out of the escape hole the Red Pepper had cut to get out. The Jet of gasses digging a growing corridor toward the center of the cloud. A 300 foot wide hole that was still spewing gasses even after 6 months. The scientist figuring that the jet had already added a few fractions of an inch of velocity to the Quadrillion ton 100,000 mile wide bubble pushing it back toward the edge of the cloud. And if the fusion process continued, the jet would push the bubble out of the cloud in another hundred thousand years. Though one theory said that eventually the diamond hard inside surface of the bubble would erode enough to kill the fusion process and the gasses would stop spewing in a thousand years or so. The heated debate amongst the ex-slave scientists almost as violent as the fusion process at the center of the bubble making Jack chuckle.
But at the moment Jack had other things to worry about. Looking around the conference table Jack could not help feeling a little bit uneasy. He had been sitting at tables and on bridges with these same men for months going from one crises to another with all of them refusing to take the lead even though they out ranked him. Though most of them in the past had pinned on temporary ranks less than his temporary Captains pins to make it easier for the crew. At least now Jack’s Captain’s silver Oak leaves were not temporary, he still refused to pin on the Temp. Commodore or Rear Admiral’s rank the Destroyer Wing Commander Vice Admiral Bingamton had given him. This was the first time they had shown up with their full ranks pinned to their collars. But then this was the first time everyone had been to a conference at the same time since he had appointed them to their posts commanding everything from the Hulk Station to the Hulk Battleship that was headed that way. That included fighter wings and bomber wings and scout wings and transport wings and marine divisions and mining divisions and fabrication production divisions and they all required a Captain to be in command of them as big as they were. With Commanders in command of the individual Squadrons. Not that he did not have enough Captains to go around. The Spiders had held on to instead of killing most of the officers they had captured expecting to be able to brainwash the humans into slavery and wanted the best and smartest of what was usually dumb masses on most of the planets they had captured in the past to man their factories. Then there was the destroyer squadron Commander that technically out ranked him if he had not become a Base Station’s Commandant with the temp rank of Vice Admiral.
Though this was the first time also he had shown up with full Captain’s pins and officially was a Captain. He still could not believe it. He still felt like the third class Gravity tech he had left the Navy Boot Ship as 2 years before. The fact that he had been a Captain and more in The Game for 10 years was the only thing that kept him from running out of the compartment screaming as soon as the 23 officers at the table looked at him. Telling himself for the thousandth time. ‘It is only the game.’ Even though he knew it wasn’t.
“Ok gentlemen. You have all had the briefing materials for a couple hours now but let me summarize. We have gotten a scouting report that a squadron is finally approaching us from The Rock. Only thing is they are refusing to answer the scout’s hails even though the Friend or Foe system says they are friendly. God knows we need the supplies but the scouts sensors are showing the Transports are hauling large quantities of mining equipment and construction materials that resemble Station assemblies. The growing number of scouts can find no large tonnage of Food. Which I do not understand. But what I really don’t like is the 8 battleships and 4 Assault Transports they have with them packed full of marines and assault tanks. They could just be reinforcing the Basestation though the 10,000 troops each of the 4 Assault Troop Carriers would normally be carrying is not only more than this base could handle and they now it from the reports I have sent. Though we can’t be sure of the number of troops since the scout’s sensors can’t penetrate their armor. But we do know the large half mile long bulk transport is empty with the scout’s sensors showing way to many decks for a bulk transport that resemble passenger decks with tens of thousands of empty cabins. Though here again the cabins they can get good readings on do not look like normal cabins. The fact that they refuse to communicate with us even ship to ship make them look more like an invading force than a relief force to me.” Jack looked around. “They are due here in 3 days. Any ideas Gentlemen would be greatly appreciated.”
Captain Pearce spoke up as Jack paused. “The lack of communications could simply be that they changed the comm coding when we lost contact 3 months ago and since we don’t have the new codes we can’t hear them.”
“They could still contact us in the clear until the coding is straightened out. They have to know we are friendly so they are being stuck up and silent intentionally. Which can only mean bad news for us.” Jack said thinking.
Another captain spoke up. “The fact that they don’t have a Fleet Carrier along would indicate that they don’t plan on invading the station Captain Turner. I think you are a bit paranoid here. It is possible that when they left they had not gotten the word that we had taken the second Spider Battleship and brought the troops to help.”
“No, that does not make sense.” Said Destroyer squadron Commodore Harriss now in command of both DD Squadrons with the death of Commodore Fletcher. “You said yourself that they did not have a fleet carrier to help with an assault. Though the Assault Transports do carry their own support fighters. The fact that I was ordered to help destroy the Spider Battleship with my squadron without invading and trying to take it and that Captain Turner was ordered to destroy the Battleship as well gets rid of the need for the marines concerning the Battleship. The only reason to have so many marines along with such a large empty transport would be to take the tens of thousands of alien slaves and crewmen into custody and take them someplace. Which fits with the orders I just received from Fleet Command.”
Jack looked at the DD Squadron Commander as the silence stretched out. “Yes Commodore? May I ask what your orders are please?”
The Commodore looked away from Jack and then back again. “The orders I just received before coming here state that my squadron is ordered to support the new Base Station Commandant Vice Admiral Ditzen and keep any ships from escaping. Capture all enemy crewmen and slave prisoners and turn them over to the Prison ship so they can be taken to a secret holding facility someplace in the cloud. That all Republic Captain’s and crewmen contaminated by any enemy contact will be included in the round up and shipment.” Taking a deep breath. “Once they get here my crews will be included in that round up for even being here if the orders are carried out as stated.” The Commodore shook his head as he looked down. “Our Wing Commander Admiral Bingamton had issued orders to keep our distance from Captain Jack and the Hulk Station after we destroyed the Battleship which fits with the orders we just received thinking we have had no contact with you Captain Turner and the Ex-slaves. They may not know we have been moving the Battleship hulk as well as getting the upgrades. I have not included those facts in my weekly reports.”
Jack swallowed as he stared at the Commodore. “And what do yo
u plan on doing with such orders Commodore Harris? If I may ask?”
Looking up from his copy of the report on the approaching fleet. “The problem I see right off is that my crews and I have all spent considerable time with the ex-enemy slaves and crewmen eating combined meals and even working upgrading our ships so it is very likely that we will be considered to be contaminated as well as you and your crew are if the roomers I have heard in mails from a few friends that have been back at the Rock are right. Though I still cannot believe the small paranoid minority that believe that the ex-slaves are a danger and must be eliminated is running things back there. It looks like I could be wrong.” Taking a breath. “But… That would explain why there are no fleet carriers with them and only 8 Battleships instead of a full squadron.” Shifting back through the pages to stop on one. “In fact the ID’s from the friend or foe system of the scout reported that each ship in the group are from different squadrons which is not anything like normal.” Shaking his head. “No, not normal and in fact is a good indication that the ships coming this way are not Fleet Command sanctioned. As if some Admiral gathered all the ships who’s Captains think like him and somehow took them on maneuvers if Command even knows they are gone. Which may be why all communication to Fleet Command and The Rock has been cut. I am only getting the occasional mail through and then only from ships of friends after they leave The Rock and are at the staging station and not at The Rock itself. The latest was from a transport captain friend that was headed this way when she left The Rock but was ordered by Traffic Control to go to a martialing area and wait for orders and then I lost contact with her.”
Frowning Harris looked around the seated group. “If that has been happening to the rest of our supply transports, it would explain why we have not been getting any supplies.” Taking a deep breath. “Her mail sounded like she was a little worried about me running into an enemy trap here since she could not understand how only one ship with a boot Ensign could destroy so many Enemy Spider Battleships when half the fleet had been wiped out already by them. She was already apprehensive of coming here and having her ship taken by the Spider fleet just waiting to follow someone back to The Rock so I don’t think she would question Cloud Traffic Control sending her someplace to sit. Even after I assured her that there was no traps here, everything was fine and without her supplies we would be starving to death in a few weeks. Though it is possible she never even got my E-mail.”
Battleship Destroyer 2 (Battleship Destoryer) Page 60
