That was all Jack needed as he took the TB out and down to fly only feet from the tube running down the full length of the long dock past the central group of warehouse, tanks and control tower.
“Not a soul Admiral. These crude readings show it is abandoned with everything on standby sir.”
With a big smile Jack pulled up and headed on down the Corridor. “He had the DD’s he needed now. All he had to do was pick them up. Well, find crews for them, new engines would be nice and of course the big guns and a little thing like defeat a horde of battleships first, but how hard could that be.
Jack hit the end of the finger and pulled up heading for the 10 forks crossing he had picked out on the map as he found himself trying to figure how to get TF-58 crews there to pick up the hundred DD’s as well as the kits to add scoops to them. Then wondering if they had any reaction mass in their tanks. With scoops they did not need much but they needed some to start with. Godstar there was a hundred things he had to do to pick up those wonderful DD’s.
Without the scoop, the TB would have taken weeks to cross the distance through the cloud to ten forks but with the scoop it only took a few minutes at full throttle. Forgetting to trim them since it was the WSO’s job and with his mind still on the beautiful DD’s. He did not notice that they were still set too large and uneven as they started to heat up with the throttles at full. Jack was now in a hurry to get back to the Red Pepper.
Winslow was again busy working on the equipment she had brought with her.
Jack suddenly found himself coming out of the cloud and racing down one of the Fingers leading into Tenforks. To Jack’s surprise, a line of Battleships was coming in from another corridor. Leaving his throttles at full power way to long after exiting the cloud, not believing what he was seeing ahead of him. Jack flashed through the middle of Ten Forks over the top of a Battleship and down the same corridor the row of battleships were leaving Ten Forks through. Glancing over his shoulder down one of the side passageways he said to himself. “Aren’t they supposed to be going down that passageway to the exit and not the dead end corridor I am going down?” Finally pulling back on the throttles when he realized they were still against the forward stop.
Jack dragged his mind back to his current problem as he passed over now familiar battleship after battleship going way to fast to enter back up into the cloud as he suddenly had to pull the stick into his gut and up the power to the ship’s maneuvering coils to maximum as he zipped around corner after corner barely staying in the corridor. Bouncing from side to side down the corridor barely missing Battleships. Suddenly wondering why they were not firing at him as he passed over the top of one battleship and then the side of another only to cut a corner as close as possible to slide past yet another one to close for comfort. Each time he could he would bring his ass around to slow the TB down as much as possible before the next battleship or corner only seconds away at the speed he was at even though the battleships were miles apart. With the corridor getting smaller and smaller, Jack was finding it harder to get around them and with the battleships getting closer and closer to each other as they slowed he found less and less time to direct his engines to slow the TB before reaching the next battleship.
Then one of the Battleship’s bows reared up in front of him pointing at the top of the Corridor and Jack had to jerk to one side to miss it.
Another Battleship started turning broadside ahead of him only seconds away with the one beyond it raising its ass up toward the top of the corridor. Jack suddenly became busy dodging battleships that were trying to turn around stopped at the end of the corridor.
Finally with the corridor completely blocked by several battleships practically side by side trying to turn around Jack zipped through a space little bigger than the TB between 2 Battleships and hit the cloud wall at the end going way to fast even with his scoops at full power.
AS the cloud started slowing the TB down with the scoop rings set at some 1,000 feet across, one of the engine scoops quickly overheated and blew before he realized that Winslow was not reducing their size and before he could get their throats tuned down himself to only a few feet across. The second engine’s scoop did not last long, even it could not take the heat after its little cooling fin that was just scabbed onto the outside of the TB and not designed to take much damage was torn off by the cloud particles speeding past without the other engine’s scoop to help cover and protect the little ship. Suddenly with the failure of the last Scoop, the TB was being buffeted by cloud particles traveling way to fast with no scoops out front to shield the little ship. The bow and leading edges of the TB’s thick armored (cooling fins for the engines)/(grave coil maneuvering wings) started glowing red. It was all Jack could do to keep the little ship’s nose into the cloud. If the TB tumbled the ultra-fast cloud particles would tear the little ship apart in only a few seconds.
Jack spotted a line of engine trails ahead and above the TB in the thick cloud as the little ship was buffeted throwing him and Winslow from side to side. Jack carefully started turning toward the line of battleships. The wide flat bottom, top and sides of the TB’s wings and fuselage starting to heat up as he fought to keep the ship from tumbling completely. Hoping he could even turn fast enough to hit the open corridor. Not even worrying at the moment if he could miss the battleship if he made it but having to aim for a battleship because that was all he could see through the cloud.
Covered in sweat as Jack fought the controls, the TB flashed out of the side of the cloud into the corridor barely missing a Battleship as the little ship’s nose passed over the topside hull only feet away with hand holds seeming close enough to touch as Jack flipped the TB over and started decelerating at full throttle.
The TB hit the far side of the corridor and disappeared as Jack sighed with relief. The engines at full thrust clearing a hole in the cloud as they quickly brought the little ship to a stop only a few thousand miles inside the cloud where Jack slapped the throttles off and sat back trying to figure out why they were still alive as his heart refused to slow as he caught his breath.
Slapping his harness release, Jack climbed out of the pilot’s seat and slid back past Winslow who was staring at her main screen bug eyed. Stepping back to the little head Jack grabbed some fiber towels out of the dispenser and wiped the sweat from his face and neck then slapped some water over his head. Taking a couple of deep breaths Jack grabbed an MRE sandwich out of the little fridge and a soda. Then plopped down on the jump seat in front of the fold down table. Trying to eat as his hand shook. Looking at the line of Battleship engine exhausts only a thousand miles away Jack took another bite and swallow of his soda. Not because he was hungry even though he was but simply for something to do as he kicked himself for getting into the situation in the first place. His joy of finding the hundreds of DD’s long gone. Relegated to a simple fact as they should have been in the first place during the middle of Combat. “Godstar I am so fucking stupid sometimes.” He said to himself.
“Ya tell me about it you stupid Moron. I am never riding with you again. You almost got me killed a dozen time in the last half hour.”
Jack slapped his soda down on the table sending a stream straight up out of the can and across the table. “If you had been doing your fucking job and bothered to tune the damn Scoops properly before we entered the cloud or even as we entered the cloud, they would have protected the ship long enough to slow us down without burning up but no. You want to tell me what your problem is bitch?”
Slapping her seat harness release. “I am not a fucking ships engineer. You’re the damn grease monkey with the engines. My job is just to tell you where the fuck to find things. I spent 10 years studying my butt off getting Doctorates in electronics and Sensor wave technology and that is what I do. I am not a fucking grease monkey fighter engineer.”
Jack glanced down at her butt. “Well you should have worked harder, you still have a big butt. I should have listened to the Chief about you. You couldn’t follow orders if your
life depended on it and one of those orders was learning your damn job which is keeping the damn TB’s engines and the rest of the ship running smoothly so the pilot can concentrate on keeping your fucking big butt alive. One of the most important of those tasks is trimming the damn Scoop coils for the density of the cloud and the speed of the ship.” Taking a step toward her he tripped over one of the bags she had brought along. Grabbing her by the arm to keep from falling.
Embarrassed at tripping and pissed at himself anyway Jack growled. “You are the one that almost got us fucking killed simply because you could not be bothered to do your fucking job.” Pushing her away back into her chair as he stepped back over the satchel. “What the fuck is all this junk you insisted on bringing?” Jack kicked one of the bags as he grabbed another towel out of the head and sat back down in the jump seat at the table, cleaning up the mess he had made.
Half in tears she shook her head and looked at her bags. “Receive and transmit modules I have altered to transmit and pick up Googleion particles.”
“That is stupid. No one can detect Googleion particles outside the major research complexes using machines the size of moons.”
“Ya that is what the Director of the Research Directorate told me when I was refused a grant to continue my work. I finally make some progress with several published papers that get noticed by the director himself and my research grant that should have been automatically renewed. Especially after finally making enough progress to get published, gets pulled.”
Jack’s mouth dropped open for a couple of seconds and then closed as he smiled. “Without telling me anything else I will bet you that he tried to take you to bed and you kicked him in the balls shortly before your grant was pulled.”
Her mouth dropped open before she turned away. “Ya, he said now that he had taken a look at my crap research he would take me under his wing and help me, if my lips and my butt was nice to him when he felt like it.” Her lip curled as she looked at him out of the corner of her eyes. “The Navy promised me a lab to continue my research and then after Bootship they decided that some of my credits were not up to Navy Standards and look at me know. A fucking Sensor Tech.”
Jack chuckled. “Cheer up. They could have made you a fucking Gravtech, mopping up mass tanks.”
She gave Jack a dirty look. “Ya, I heard the rumors and I don’t believe them anymore than I believe half the news on the main entertainment channels.” Looking down at the bags. “When we started using all the exslave tech I finally found what I needed technology wise to finish my research and built the needed equipment using half slave and half human tech.”
Shaking her head she bit her lower lip then said as sweetly as she could with a forced smile. “I assembled a lot of the components already and attached the transmit and receive modules across the back wall… Bulkhead, while we were drifting above the Maze deep in the cloud where the TB’s sensors were mostly useless before the attack. Though I don’t know how you managed to make your little map and then find the damn Station.” Taking a breath and frowning. “I have only been able to test a few single pairs of modules so far with limited success but if you will let me tear into the console and hook up the new array modules I have across the bulkhead. I think I can give you an accurate map of every enemy unit in the whole maze. Maybe across the damn cloud.”
Jack turned and looked at the rows of modules across the back bulkhead. Reaching out to one of the modules with the top hanging down at an angle away from the bulkhead and pushed it back against the bulkhead for the pressure sensitive foam tape to grab it firmly as it clicked into the module next to it. Then turned to Winslow. “Well shit why not. You suck as a TB crewman, maybe you’re good at what you say you are.” Smiling at her. “I hope so or you are going to get damn tired of cleaning Mass Tanks or cooking from now on because you aren’t ever stepping into another bomber.”
Jack shook his head as she squealed with joy and dug into her satchels, grabbing tools and attacked the console without saying a word or waiting long enough for Jack to change his mind.
‘A whole lot of people were going to be shocked if she managed to pull off what she said she could.’ Smiling to himself. ‘Especially the politically appointed, self-centered, lying scumbag, murdering thief, Director of the Republics Research Directorate. That happened to have his name on half the advancements in the last 3 decades while his colleagues have the highest death and supposedly suicide rate in the Republic. Even higher than murderers on death row.’ Looking at her again he smiled. Actually she was lucky. If the Director had thought she was on to something, He would have backed her and most likely she would already be dead by now instead of just demanding she become another one of his whores in the Directorate. So she jumps into his little Transport Bomber and she tries to kill him with herself. Shaking his head. When was he going to grow up and stop acting like a fucking kid coming unglued and forgetting everything else every time he saw a pretty new toy?’
Though Jack knew the answer to that as science had known for centuries that the human mind physically changed at about the age of 25 to tone down its reckless unthinking behavior into a more sedate logically thinking machine but Jack knew he could not wait another 5 years or he was going to get a lot of people killed as he had almost killed himself and his RTO. He should have slowed down and realized that h
Watching Winslow open the side of the console and climb in, Jack finished his soda and sandwich. “How long is this going to take?”
Backing out enough to look at Jack over her backside with her big butt hanging up into the air toward him. “About a half hour to hook it all up and another half hour to program and fine tune and hopefully we will have something truly amazing.” She buried her head back into the console.
“Well, we can’t sit here that long. I have a battle to win. You are going to have to hold on while I get us back to the Red Pepper using the Corridors filled with enemy Battleships. Hopefully they will keep ignoring us as we go by as small as we are. But you are going to have to hold on. It is not going to be a very smooth ride. I will try to warn you if I have to make any hard or sudden moves but I can’t promise.”
“Great. I will be fine.” She waved her hand outside the cabinet shoeing him away. “Now leave me alone so I can work.”
Jack started to step around the console and noticed it was still live. Raising his eye brows. “Do you know that the High voltage…” A spark arced lighting up the inside of the cabinet as she worked. “Ya I suppose you do.” And climbed back up around the console and into the pilots chair buckling himself in. Thinking about her not being buckled in with her body half inside a high voltage Cabinet, he felt guilty tightening down his harness. But he could not afford to lose control of the ship just because she was being stupid. He started to yell back to tell her to get strapped in but then he had already told her what he was going to do so he best just trust her and let her do her thing and hope for the best. After all he wasn’t planning on attacking anyone and was hoping they would not even get shot at. ‘Ya sure bozo. Buzz a whole fleet and not get shot at. Easy.’ Jack said to himself.
Jack started easing the TB back toward the corridor and the steady stream of Battleships parading past.
-----------------------------------
Jack slid out directly in front of the last Battleship of the squadron. Powering out across the armored bow as he turned up the corridor and headed for the battleship that had passed a few minutes before. By the time he reached the battleship a thousand miles ahead, the little TB was moving at a damn good clip and zipped past it and was around the next bend in the corridor. Hopefully before the Battleship even realized he had been there. Jack was counting on the fact that none of the ships could transmit very far up or down the corridors around the bends without the cloud screwing with the comm transmissions. He still could not believe with the dozens of ships packed along the end of the finger he had first run into an hour before that not one had seemed to even know he was there. Though they were a bit bu
sy trying to get turned around and he wasn’t their very long. Still he counted it as a little miracle. He also knew that the squadron in the dead end tunnel would take hours to get turned around and back to the cross corridors and if he was lucky they would take yet again the wrong corridor and waste more time getting even more lost.
Now at speed with the short legs and constant curving of the corridors in the Maze Jack knew quite well why no one found time to shoot at him. That is except for the increasing numbers of Battleships he found stopping at sharp corners to turn and then accelerate in the new direction instead of powering around them. All he could think of was that they were all crewed by fucking amateurs. Something he was going to have to talk to Zoot about. Between the pilots at the Station and the pitiful maneuvering abilities of most of the Battleships he was passing and as strung out as they were with thousands of miles between some ships. Most of them going down the corridors like drunks bouncing from side to side instead of maintaining the military steady line down the center. Fact he had yet to see even one Battleship that was keeping a smart line down the center of the Corridors.
Jack finely noticed as he passed only feet away from another engine stream that the 4 streams from the Battleship were different colors and even sizes. With one of the streams seaming to burp several times a second. Jack started wondering how they even managed to keep the damn ships running. But then they had managed to kill one of his Transport Bombers back at the Staging Station. Trying to keep his emotions about the loss from over taking him. He had to admit that they did just sit there after launching the God City Killing torpedoes while the conventional torpedos did their slow launch cycle one by one from the Bombay. It was procedure at the time but it should not have been. Why did so many have to die from stupid mistakes. Mistakes he was supposed to prevent.
Battleship Destroyer 2 (Battleship Destoryer) Page 103
