“Well Admiral. I was born under a Neutron star from conception to birth before my parents got out of the system. Only two infants survived longer than a year out of some 20. The thing is from what the Navy has told me, several of my normally dormant Genes have been turned on and I can see energy waves other than simple light. Using infrared, I saw you flick off the bunch of us or well to be more exact, me, from behind the book. I am sorry for laughing but it took me by surprise.”
“Just what I was hoping to do Turner. Is that how you have won most of your battles and set a record crossing the Cloud?”
“Aaa yes that and over 10 years playing the fleet wide Sim Game which I have an Admiral’s rating in, giving me a lot of tactical experience. Which is why I never wanted to be an admiral. Well maybe a Commodore/lieutenant or Rear Admiral. With a squadron of DD’s to play hell with the enemy’s ships assess.” Taking a deep breath. “Though I was just thinking about taking a trip around the enemy fleet and attacking their supply lines and destroying a lot of their infrastructure to slow them down Sir. Give the Republic more time to build the fleet they need.”
Shaking his head. “But then I wasn’t kidding, I would just be happy piloting something like the Phoenix and not having to worry about making the decisions and getting people killed or losing battles. To damn much work and headaches and I am not very good at it sir. The thing is the Red Pepper is suffering without a full time Captain, Admiral and I really would like you to take this damn promotion back and let you take care of Vice Admiral Ditzen and him trying to destroy the stations and enslave the ex-slaves to serve and give him all the new tech toys so he can become the Supreme Admiral. No, I just wish you would take these damn Stars Admiral and slap me back in the pilot’s seat.”
“Well Vice Admiral Turner, I wish I was an Ensign again running around fucking half the whores on The Rock and that so many of my friends had not been slaughtered 7 months ago and a day doesn’t go by when I think that someone else could have done a better job but I know better and so do you. So get off your fucking self-pity soap box and stop crying. Admiral Halsey is the Supply Admiral around here and he thinks you are the only one that can get the supplies that will save my Fleet’s crew’s Ass. Now that I know why he knows you can do the impossible, you are going to do just that. As for Ditzen, he did us a favor forcing you into this promotion and from what I have read, he is safe for the moment were he can’t do much harm so forget him for now. The Doctors here are going to spend an hour looking up your ass and down your throat as well as your eyes and tell me why you are so special and that includes the Lieutenant out in my reception area. Then you are going back to work and get me my supplies and save my Task Force. Is that clear Vice Admiral Turner? I am also giving you back your DD’s and adding my surviving DD’snow that their battle damage has been repaired. If the gun upgrades your engineers are adding to our ships are any good we won’t need the DD’s anyway when we head for New Home next week when we finish refueling. But I don’t dare give you their crews yet until I know they will live and thanks for taking care of the ones I sent before, I did not realize how bad off we all are so you are going to have to provide crews for them. Sorry but that is just facts for the next month.”
“That is fine Admiral. We will manage.” Turning to Doctor Warmfeld. “You need to scan the Admiral. His heart doesn’t look good. In fact it is about the same color as the one that died. Don’t ask me what color? I have no name for it and as for scanning me in the lab. X-rays drive me crazy blinding me for hours and make my head feel like it is going to explode so don’t get near me with the machine.”
Thirty seconds later after pointing his scanner at Admiral Spencer, Doctor Warmfeld hit his panic button and the Admiral joined the study group with the other patients Jack had sent to Sickbay. Receiving the new tea even ahead of the convicts. The Doctor thinking about giving the admiral a quick heart transplant.
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Twenty hours later after spending most of the time with the doctors examining him trying to fall asleep and then getting a good 10 hours of sleep after that and getting the new crews for the Black Dwarf’s DD’s straitened around, Jack lifted the Phoenix off of the landing deck and headed for the corridor to New Home. After doing a quick blind test showing the Doctor’s his ability then being poked and prodded in every orifice he never knew he had and then stuck in half a dozen places with horse needles topped off with a dozen scans that were more painful than the horse needles, he felt like shit even after all the sleep while they checked their test and decided they did not need any more specimens. Though he had a partner to commiserate with that was not too happy about being a test subject either. The Lieutenant vowing to get even with Jack for first leaving without her while she was on patrol and now the tests.
The Phoenix’s bridge crew that had been all top of the line officers, were now in command of the 4 DD’s that just joined the squadron from the Black Dwarf. Jack now had the Lieutenant as his First Officer and Pilot, Jack calling her his First Mate as a joke she had not appreciated, saying there better not be a second mate. With the 4 Black Dwarf DD’s pulling crews from the other DD’s and the Assault transports that included some marines with some ship tech experience, all of Jacks combat ships were running with reduced crews. Jack still wondering what had happened to the other DD squadron he had ordered to head that way even if he was told by Pan when he was at New Home briefly that they were busy but he did not have the time at the time to argue with her. Thankful now that they hadn’t needed them. He was still going to have a serious talk with Pan when he got back to New Home.
Though at the moment if it had not been for feeling sore from all the tests the day before, he would have been having the time of his life as he piloted the Phoenix out away from TF-58. Glad that they had confirmed that the new pill supplement was safe and working as promised as the test subjects including the Admiral along with all the crews of TF-58 were already responding positively to the treatment. Though he had been a little surprised to see Commander Chin in amongst the test subjects the day before serving as a last minute healthy control subject to make sure any side effects that cropped up were from the supplements and not something nutrition pill related that it turned out he was not taking.
Not in any hurry and wanting to keep the 10 other DD’s and the 4 Assault Transports (now that the TF-58 ships had all been searched with the arrival of the second pair of Assault transports and General Sherman’s 82nd Division ahead of schedule and just in time to turn around and leave), together incase problems developed with the 4 battle damage repaired DD’s. Especially since all 15 ships had what amounted to only two watch section crews. Jack followed the path the transports had made just so he could spend more time in the Cockpit. No real reason to get in a hurry now and every reason not to hurry with all the problems waiting for him at the other end he knew others could handle if he wasn’t there to foist all the minor decisions onto. After all, he had taken care of all the important shit. It was just a matter of putting the station together and start the upgrades he had already authorized for the transports needed for the Resupply mission. Heck, half the transports should be ready to go by the time he got back to New Home. What could go wrong?
Sixteen hours later with the Lieutenant almost ready to killed him because he insisted on doing the piloting, Jack flashed past a lone slow bulk transport with his mind on other things so it took him a good minute to realize what that meant. The transport was way behind schedule for New Home at that speed and it was alone and not in one of the 5 or 6 damn Convoysit was supposed to be in. Whipping the Phoenix around as Jack started slowing down with the rest following his surprise move. A few minutes later they passed another lone transport and even later yet another before they had slowed enough to head back to the first transport he had passed.
“Transport Kline, this is Phoenix, Admiral Turner. You are 2 days behind your assigned flight plan. Why are you going so damn slow? Why are you not in a convoy squadron? And how ar
e you planning on finding New Home all by yourself?”
“Kline, Captain Stevens here. Fleet Command Captain Leslie authorized all transports to make best speed to New Home on our own when she took off all the marines. I am not in any hurry and at this speed we can go half way across the cloud without needing more reaction mass so we don’t get stranded again at your New Home hole in the wall. Whatever that crappy place is. As far as getting lost we were given the coordinates and route map to New Home and do not need to stay with your damn escorts.”
Jack counted to 20 gripping the chair’s armrests and trying his best to break them off in his hands before looking up. “Captain Stevens, this is Admiral Turner. You will double your acceleration to the minimum published convoy speed immediately and stand by for boarding.” Jack cut the Comm then turned to the Lieutenant. “That damn Leslie gave out the damn coordinates and a fucking map to New Home to the entire fucking fleet. I am going to kill that stupid ass moron. She is supposed to be one of Admiral Spencer’s best Staff Captains. Which is why I assigned her. How could she be so stupid to ignore every written standing orders I left for her? Hell it was her fucking plan. She has condemned everything we have done to keep the ex-slaves safe. I am going to kill the bitch.”
“Calm down Jack.” The Lieutenant said. “The Replacement marines we send over to insure they get to New Home with no further delays can just have them wipe the navigation Computers memory. In fact they can wipe every memory chip, slide, disc and block on the ship to make sure no copies were made accidentally.”
“Oh great they are just going to love us for wiping all their personal recordings and pictures.”
“It is either that or intern them for the duration of the war and we really don’t have time for anything less like worms and checking each and every recording on every ship with some of the Tramps having crews in the thousands. And we do have the capability to wipe anything in a compartment rather quickly.”
“Shit, Damn it, but I can’t think of anything better. The Kline has a crew of about 300. Hopefully a Platoon should be able to get the job done. Though I best talk things over with General Meyers and Sherman to see if they can come up with a better Idea. Maybe let the crew present a few memory recordings for inspection.” Turning back to the Lieutenant. “Get me the Assault Transports and the Generals on a conference screen. Damn nasty fuckup this is. I also need to send one of the DD’s to New Home fast and have them quarantine the transports as they come in along with any that have already arrived to keep the information from getting spread if we can. Though it may already be too late. Damn.”
After being told that the information about New Home could be hidden inside any recording no matter how innocent it looked, unless they had a lot of time to examine each recording. Jack ordered them to let the crews submit personal recordings anyway for later inspection unless they found out it was too late. Ten minutes later DD-1701 left making its best speed. Jack had no doubt it would get there almost as fast as he could. Carrying specific orders to handle the situation at the other end. Jack had a feeling that things were worse than they looked at his end. And he needed to find out what that worse was but after he got things rolling.
Jack sent Sherman with his two Assault Transports and half the DD’s up the Corridor to the main marked highway running its zig zag coarse through mostly natural cleared areas called rivers, seas and oceans from one end of the cloud to the other, to take care of and guard the secret entrance to the corridor Jack had drilled running to New Home as half the DD’s and General Meyers started vacuuming up transports from that end. Placing marines on each of them then leaving them to make their true best speed to New Home. It now being too late to gather them into the original squadrons Captain Leslie had originally suggested. He would just have to let them straggle in at their best speed while he DD’s patrolled the chock points and kept an eye on them. Regretting the hurt and loss of memories wiping all the memories of the crews would bring but not having any choice in the matter even though it could turn out to be a waste of time. The secret could still get out. But he still had to try.
Then stepping into the Captain’s day cabin just behind the bridge Jack turned out the lights and all the screens and ports, then waited as the line of transports stretching out along the corridor started appearing to him. The line of bright specks arced and twisted along the bends in the corridor he had made to the central Freeway River he had started this corridor at. Using the river to shorten the length of corridor he had to make. Even though the river made up part of the freeway system running down the length of The Cloud, he was not worried about a passing ship finding the entrances to the corridors or stumbling onto one of his ships as spread out as the traffic was. The Republic had been hiding entrances in the cloud for a thousand years. But then he had not planned on trying to move an entire fleet down the Freeway River and then into the New Home corridor either.
Jack studied the long string reaching out through the cloud. Their hot reaction mass exhausts were hard to see through the cloud even at this short range. Though once his eyes got used to the dark, he could pick them out, barely. He did not like what he saw. He could not be certain that the 3 transports in the freeway Corridor that had travelled past the entrance to New Home were from his transports or not but they were together which was not usual for the freeway traffic and they were headed in the general direction of the main Staging Maze area for The Rock. They were a long ways past the entrance to New Home and getting farther away by the minute. Not taking their time in the least. If they were his transports and had the coordinates of New Home and they reached The Rock, New Home was screwed. Turning on one of his screens at the lowest brightness levels possible, he tried to get the ships sensors to find the ships and lock onto them but the sensors could not even see them. Shaking his head Jack returned to the Bridge taking the Pilots seat from the Lieutenant.
A few seconds later the Phoenix was streaking up the corridor trying to make up for lost time. Calling ahead as he caught up with General Sherman, Jack took on a Company of marines. The little 400 foot ship becoming crowded with the hundred marines on board and their ship boarding equipment.
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Twelve hours later the Phoenix was racing down the main freeway approaching the head entrance area to the Maze when weapons fire and then a huge explosion from ahead of the ship almost blinded Jack in spite of the bright bridge lights. The thick armored forward facing hull of the DD not even slowing down much of the higher waves of energy from the blast telling Jack that it was probably a ship’s Fusion Core hit before they had a chance to scram or eject it.
“Weapons fire ahead and an explosion Captain. I can’t get a fix on it yet. It is still washing out my instruments.” The sensor operator said. “I think a fusion core went up by my readings sir.”
“Got heavy Comm traffic ahead Captain. Transmitting in the clear and at full power. Someone is trying to get their message across to someone and they are scared.”
“Put it on the screen Comm.”
A familiar Company ship Captain appeared on the screen. Jack remembered him from his years on the Turner Joy and cargo auctions Jack had been at with his father bidding for Cargo. Which was unusual with thousands of Company ships running around the Republic. The Company Captain was an Ass hole and would deliberately bid down cargo rates when he had no intentions of taking the cargo just to screw over the Tramps. Then pleading unforeseen circumstances to get out of taking cargo he had bid to low on when no other lower bid from any Tramps materialized. A ploy a tramp could never get away with that the Company ships did all the time. This Captain just took extreme pleasure in going out of his way to do it every chance he got instead of just being an occasional mistake like most Company ships. With the Tramp that had put in the next lowest bid, stuck taking the Cargo whether they still wanted or even had room for it or not after taking on other cargo, or faced losing rating points that could keep them from bidding on the better cargos next time. A problem Company
ships did not have.
Still this ship was from Jack’s cargo Fleet and he was not liking what he was hearing.
The Company Captain was practically screaming in fear. “We escaped from Task Force 58 at the Delta 7 staging station. They are moving you fool. We have to get to The Rock!” The Captain was thrown to the side of his chair as the transport was hit by a 5 inch shell close to the Transport’s Bridge.
Another Captain appeared on the screen that Jack recognized as a Tramp Captain that he knew well. “You destroyed the Serious 5. Why are you shooting at us? We are Republic transports.” The bridge shook throwing half the bridge crew from their consoles. “We already have decks and compartments breached and hundreds of lives lost. Stop shooting.”
“We have tactical now Captain.” The Lieutenant said from the Command chair.
Jack looked over at the pilot’s small tactical screen and the group of ships. Three transports and a Battleship. Streaks of 5 inch shells rained from the guns of the battleship hitting the 3 transports knocking holes into the sides.
“What the hell happened to the 4th transport?” Jack asked and knew the answer already but just could not believe it.
Jack watched one of the transports disappear as a flash almost blinded him again as the transport’s fusion core went up destroying the transport and its crewmen and their families.
“My God you just destroyed another Transport. Who the hell do you think you are? But I am not with those damn Tramps. They just tagged along with me. This is a company ship and I have information and a Priority One Message from a Congressional Operative about Task Force 58 and a secret base I need to deliver to The Rock. We have maps and orders.”
Battleship Destroyer 2 (Battleship Destoryer) Page 91
