This being the first time the Admiral had been a part of or witness of the Ex-slaves outlook of life under their Gods, the Admiral was shocked into speechlessness as his jaw hit his desk. It took him a full minute to recover as the Ex-slave remained kneeling with every slave behind him in view of the pickup knelling and bowing as well. Patiently waiting.
Looking from the prostrate ex-slaves up to the hanger bay with Jack surrounded by the still growing crowd as a sled with several medics floated over the heads of the masses to take the body from his arms. Jack continued to stand for a few seconds staring at the medics that had taken the body, then started walking slowly turning a spiral through the crowd holding his arms out to his sides. Letting people reach out and touch him that wanted to. His movement stopping the ones on the outside from trying to push their way in, crushing those around Jack.
The Admiral turned up the screen speaker’s volume and was surprised to hear only Jack’s armored suit’s footsteps on the metal deck in the silent hanger as he slowly walked around. Jack’s voice while not loud carried across the crowd. “Just relax. You are all going to live now so just relax. Stay where you are, I want to have a close look at all of you. Just give me a few minutes to get to you all. Just relax. You are safe now.” Jack suddenly picked up one of the crewmen and then held him up over the heads of the crewmen around him. “Take this man out to the Ship’s Patrol outside the crowd. Hurry he needs help.” They started passing the man from hand to hand over the heads towards the outer edge of the throng. Then loud enough for the whole hanger to hear. “You Ship’s Patrol. Get this man to medical ASAP. That is an order. He only has a couple hours to live without medical attention. Jack stopped going in a spiral and started going straight to certain crewmen who he immediately sent out of the crowd as well to be taken to Sickbay.
Shaking his head baffled again. ‘It is time to rescue a certain Vice Admiral and find out what the hell was going on here.’ The Admiral said in his mind to himself as he looked back down at the screen and the Ex-slave Doctor still prostrating himself. “We do not take hostages here ever. Nor are we going to kill anyone intentionally. Now stand the fuck up like free men. You will do the short term study and see how it goes as the supplements are distributed across the fleet for possible use. In the mean time I will talk to Admiral Turner and think about your requested long term study. Dismissed.”
Cutting the Comm from Medical, the Admiral looked at the screen of the Hanger bay as a medical sled came floating across the crowd again as Jack grabbed another crewman and threw him up on the open almost empty sled then pulled himself up onto the sled with the help of those around him. Sitting on the front edge next to the driver with his legs dangling over the edge of the sled, Jack pointed out across the still growing throng. The sled drifted over and stopped and Jack reached down and grabbed the outstretched hands of a crewman and hoisted her up onto the sled into the waiting hands of the medics who started running a scanner lazily across the crewman only to suddenly go into overdrive, rapidly hooking up an IV along with several injections leaving the scanner screen laying across her chest with one of the medics carefully watching it. The sled suddenly speeded up as Jack pointed at someone just walking up outside the throng that was quickly scooped up as another medical sled slid up beside the first and Jack stepped across between the two. The first loaded with several patients sped away as the new sled started circling the crowd again with Jack again sitting with his legs dangling over the front of the flat bed next to the driver pointing out where to go.
Slapping his Comm. “Security. Get Vice Admiral out of the Main Hanger and ask him to please come to my Office. Do not take no for an answer. Out.” He watched Jack pick up yet another crewman that the medics started working on with no haste. Though they did more than simply run a scanner over the crewman this time.
A few seconds later the Medical sled stopped circling as a security sled came up to the medical sled. The Admiral could hear a few wards being exchanged but could not understand them with the sleds on the other side of the hanger and by the time he found the right pickup close to the sleds, Jack had already stepped across to the security sled and it headed for the exit next to the Flight Command compartment. As the noise in the Hanger started to increase as the crowd realized the Vice Admiral was leaving the security sled dropped to the deck long enough to pick up a pilot with a very big green woman standing next to one of the strange looking alien scout bombers. The human woman had pilot’s wings on her chest. The big red headed light green woman with her suit unzipped to her belly button with her breasts half exposed and without Pilots wings climbed in to sit at the back of the sled in a lotus position that did not look comfortable at all between two armored suited SP’s. The human pilot practically jumped at the Vice Admiral giving him a hug almost falling off the front of the sled as the sled disappeared into the elevator lift area in the core. The Admiral looked back at the alien scout bomber and frowned. He was still getting used to having such alien craft in his flag ship even if they were alien/human hybrids but the sudden realization that a human female was piloting at least this one suddenly made accepting them in the hanger easier even if Admiral Halsey had told him to trust Turner.
Which reminded the Admiral of the talk he had with Admiral Halsey. He had known the Admiral since the Naval Academy as Cadets. While they had not roomed together they had spent much time together in many of the same classes as well as on the sports fields, studying and working off demerits after pissing off Professors when they questioned accepted tactics and long held beliefs. Both had graduated in the upper 500 of a class of 2,000 only a few spaces apart. So he trusted Halsey implacably but the thought of cutting themselves off from The Rock just did not seem right or even smart. There was no way they could fight a war without The Rock and the support of the rest of the Republic but yet it sounded like that was what Halsey was talking about doing. Though he was starting to realize they just may not have a choice in the matter if he wanted to fight a battle they could win instead of being sacrificed for some Congressional Admirals political or personal agenda or gain, again. He was still coming to grips with the fact that TF-58 had been abandoned to be slaughtered.
He still could not believe that the entire high Command had been taken over by political appointees. But then it had seemed like as many of the Naval Academy trained Admirals and Commanders (his longtime friends) as possible (which was twice as many as any other unit), had been included in the so called Bait task force (TF-58) to lure out the enemy fleet into the trap and then left to die after the faster re-engined Battleships had fired a few rounds at extreme range and then fled. He was still not sure if any of the supposedly entrapping ships had even been damaged before they fled.
Forty-seven high ranking Admirals, some in commodore positions 2 and 3 levels below their Stars just to get them in the Task Force had died with their Command ships in that fiasco before he could get to them as they sent the rest of their ships and crews his way while they turned into the enemy trying to buy him time to save the Task Force as they slowly died one by one in fiery fusion explosions that tried to take out as many of their pursuers as possible. Most were close friends. Worse yet, not a one of them had officially been recognized for the enemy ships they had taken out with their lives in the news casts he had seen from Earth. Enough enemy ships had been destroyed that the enemy stopped chasing them and changed their tactics to trying to blocking off any hope of reaching any star systems in range. Waiting for them to run out of reaction mass. But he had fooled them and pulled off the impossible.
Then he learned from Halsey that many more of the ranking Fleet Admirals that had nothing to do with the battle had been sacrificed in the after math and given the blame. While all the politically appointed Admirals and Commanders that actually were the cause of the disaster and had fled the battle with the first shots were held blameless. The same Congressmen that had appointed the Democrat Communist Admirals and their Cronies where the same Congressmen that had ran the Congressi
onal Investigation. Cutting off or denigrating and vilifying any testimony not toeing their politically correct line. Even going to the point of throwing out testimony and finally using the old legal ploy of citing the Consensus of a Hundred handpicked Experts to justify their final ruling. Experts that were in many cases Pacifists while none were experts in military tactics or even war, but from what he could see over the airwaves, most were receiving research grants from the same Congressional Democrat Communist sponsors.
Admiral Spenser shook his head. Still, what could only a hundred shot up surviving Battleships do with what little support Admiral Halsey could send them? He had seen that his Battleships were worthless against the enemy battleships unless they rammed them at a closing speed of a good percentage of lightspeed in suicide runs. His little fleet did not stand a chance yet the broad casts from earth had talked about a new supper battle ship The Rock was building. Now if he could get a hold of those for his fleet he just might be able to do some damage. But to do that he had to turn himself in and hope it was not as bad as Admiral Halsey thought and the news from Earth said it was. No, he had carried out his orders to the letter even though he had not liked them and knew he was going into a trap. It was not his fault. The Admiral was still not convinced that the whole Rock had turned against him and his Task force even after watching what had transpired at the Congressional Hearings flooding the cloud ways while his fleet starved.
He did not know what he was going to do but he knew if he didn’t do something soon half of his entire task force was going to starve to death and according to Admiral Halsey, this Temp Vice Admiral could get him all the food he needed and Turner was going to do just that or he would shoot him himself.
That is if he wasn’t as completely crazy as he had just looked. He was going to find out what the hell he was doing down in that hanger and there had better be a damn good explanation. Thinking for a few seconds the Admiral knew where to start. Hitting his Comm directly to Sickbay. “Doctor Warmfeld, I believe Admiral Turner has been sending crewmen to Sickbay. Can you tell me what is going on there? Is he going crazy?”
“How did you find out so fast? Hell yes he has to be crazy.” Confirming the Admiral’s surmise. “I have had medics giving out the Nutrition pills to everyone on every ship at every meal for the last month with specific instructions to look for any signs of anyone that even looks like they may drop dead at any moment and we have not been able to find one crewmen before they have died. But then we did not have time to run scanners over everyone for every meal. And now this guy Turner spends five minutes aboard ship in the hanger deck and starts sending me crewmen that are on the verge of complete heart failure in the next few hours or a day or two, the way everyone has died so far. We now have the plenty of time to keep them alive. In fact now that we have seen some within hours of dying, we now know the stages and why we could not see it on scanners before. I think we can formulate a test we can give the whole crew to catch all the rest before they croak. Sorry Admiral, but that is what everyone says the victims say or belch the instant they die and now it makes perfect sense.”
Looking to the side of the screen for a few seconds the Doctor continued. “Ok. I have just been told that a woman died right in front of the Admiral a few minutes after he walked down from his ship onto the hanger and shortly after that he began pointing out the crewmen he sent here.” Shaking his head. “But that still does not explain how he knew or knows. As I said we could not tell with our scanners who was within a week of dying until he rubbed our noses in several that were on the verge of dying.” Looking to the side again and back. “Even the ex-slaves do not have any ideas how, only to say he is, The Great Savior of legend past. But that is not important right now. I have work to do getting the test work going in time for the next meal. Later Admiral.”
“NO Doctor. Give the job to someone else. I need you in my day cabin immediately with what medical scanners you can bring. I need to know how he knew. Admiral Turner is headed this way. Now get here ASAP. Spencer out.”
The Admiral’s Comm beeped as he noticed a name that had been on the screen for quite a while now waiting for his attention. Commander Chin, DD-1701. Recognizing that was the ship that had brought Admiral Turner he slapped at the icon. “Yes Commander. Do you have something to tell me about Admiral Turner?”
The Commander sat back as his mouth opened and closed. It was obvious that the Commander was pissed. “Fact I do Admiral Spencer. How did you know?”
“Just spill the beans Commander I am in a bit of a hurry here.”
“I wish to formally submit a claim against Vice Admiral Turner for endangering my ship and crew. He insisted on bringing the ship recklessly strait across the Cloud from New Home flying almost twice as fast as even our upgraded sensors could see using that new none Navel approved Grave Scoop or cloud Scoop to open a tunnel in the cloud little bigger than the ship. He flew like a mad man barely missing countless rocks and gravel traps and mega dense cloud banks and even an Ice planet orbiting a Gas Giant not on the charts. Not once did he back off on the throttles even after I threatened him with my pistol. Telling me to shoot him or shut up. He even told engineering to go to 150% thrust by closing down whole sections of the ship and ordering the crew to the mess deck and even had enlisted crewmen stuffed in the wardroom and Officers cabins. Totally unacceptable behavior. He could have killed us all and prevented the medicine from reaching Task Force-58 Admiral. I am sending an attachment with our logs and sensor data clearly showing there was no way the Admiral could have known what was in front of the ship in time to miss most of what he missed. It had to be totally blind luck Admiral. My whole crew and I should be dead.”
“Let me get this straight Commander.” As he opened up the attachment and started reviewing the flight. “Did you really pull a weapon on the Admiral?”
“Yes sir but the First Officer took it away from me. I will be filing charges against him later along with several other Officers and crewmen that jumped at every order and suggestion the fool made sir.”
“Ok you say the Chief Engineer actually got 150% thrust out of those cruiser engines Commander?”
“Yes sir. Actually, with the fools shutting down most of the ship for power, he was able to get up to 157% Admiral.”
“Ok and how many casualties do you have?”
“Several sir. Lacerations and sprains from a fall in the Port engine room, a hatch closed on a crewman’s foot when he shut the hatch too soon and the ship’s cat scratching an Officer’s hand when she got her tail pulled in the crowded ward room.”
The Admiral started staring at his main screen, his eyes flicking to points across it too fast to follow for several minutes as the Captain sat back and waited. Then finally the Admiral Spencer glanced at the Captain with a frown as he went back to scanning the screen and started to speak. “Yes I see from the log that the Admiral was actually turning the ship quite often before anything showed on the sensor screens. Either the Admiral is clairvoyant or he knew some things he could not possible have known about. I am sure the sensors were absolutely worthless to him. From what I can see scanning the bridge recording at high speed, he hardly looked at the damn sensor screens. Fact he looks like he is looking up and down and everywhere but the sensor screens except to get specific information like mass or how fast the object is traveling and repeating it to himself before ignoring the screen again.” Looking hard for a few seconds trying to see something the Admiral finally realized that the whole bridge was dark and the low light pickup simply could not show everything.
“Admiral. I insist that you arrest the Admiral. He is a danger to the fleet.”
Admiral Spencer turned from the recording and looked at the Commander as he took a deep breath. “I cannot believe you really pulled a weapon on the Admiral.”
“Yes sir, and my First Officer took it from me before I could save the ship. And then he refused to obey my orders to arrest the Admiral and it is his fault none of the rest of the crew ever follow my ord
ers Admiral. They have always turned to him. They keep accusing me of making mistakes andgiving confusing orders and I do not never give confusing orders Admiral. I graduated from the best university on Earth with grades and honors in business and enlightened thinking these morons only wish they had and these ass holes think they know how to run a ship better than me.” The Commander’s eyes flicked around the bridge at the officers still at their posts for a few seconds as he took a breath. “I am not going to let a crazy fucking kid Admiral that doesn’t even have any political backers get me killed. Besides how the hell did he get appointed as a fucking admiral anyway without a Congressmen backer of any kind? Listen Admiral Spencer. I have connections that will make me an admiral one day. I have Friends that are friends of one of the President’s personal Aid’s family. I can help you Admiral big time.”
Admiral Spencer buried his face in his hands. Fighting back the urge to ream his butt out the nearest airlock for even pulling a weapon on an Admiral. But a better idea flashed into his mind. One that required a lot less paperwork. “Tell you what Commander. I have a special job for you with my staff. Are you interested?”
An Ear to Ear smile appeared on the Commanders face. “I knew you would see reason and what I can do for you Admiral Spencer. You won’t regret this. Yes I accept any job you have for me on your staff.”
“Very well then Commander you are locked in but before I tell you your new assignment let me just ask you a question.” The Admiral continued tapping orders into his desk. “Have you ever heard the phrase Captains’ are Tyrants?”
“Aaa Yes sir and I have tried to be as good a tyrant as I can sir.”
“Then you make the mistake most Commanders make that are too stupid to realize what a Ship’s Captain actually is. So let me paraphrase a little about more of the old poem that dates back to the days ships sailed the 7 seas of Earth that was a warning for the Officers and not so much the crews. “Ensigns’ are know it all’s, Lieutenants’ are full of themselves, Commanders are Wanabee’s, Captains are Tyrants and Admirals are Gods.” Shaking his head. “You just pulled a weapon on a God, Commander. Now this God is ordering you to report to sickbay to take charge of the nutrition study’s lab rats and as a control pin cushion.” You will turn over Command of DD-1701 immediately to your First Officer verbally and then leave. Do not talk to anyone else, call anyone, touch anything or pack. Those things will be done for you. If you have not reported to the SP waiting outside DD-1701 in the hanger bay in 3 minutes you will be considered a deserter in time of war and executed on sight. You will tell the Patrol officer in charge to take you to Sickbay and keep you under close guard. Failure to perform every order I have just given you or the Study’s Doctors, alien or otherwise, will be viewed as treason and you will be executed. Is that clear Commander.” Taking a breath as the Commander started sputtering.
Battleship Destroyer 2 (Battleship Destoryer) Page 89
