“No! Damn it. Damn, is also an expletive referring to a subject. Access the damn…” Taking a breath. “Access your node or the net and down load a list of slang names, words and expli…”
“Complements of Captain Clancy. He says you need a Flag Bridge and if the Admiral would not go to the Flag Bridge, then the Flag Bridge would come to the Admiral.” Terrell, Jacks Marine Steward stepped through the hatch next to the elevator hatch and the screen across the smaller back bulkhead with a Comm console below it. “I used the opportunity to make a few changes in your cabin as well since you insist on living in what was only supposed to be a day cabin and then for a Captain and not an Admiral.” Terrell placed a large cup of steaming tea on the arm of the Command Chair with an English biscuit next to it. “You having problems with your bot Admiral?”
“Eerrrrr.” No. C3PO, go stand beside the…the Elevator, the Lift.” Jack watched as CP3O walk toward the elevator and then turned his chair back around to looking at the view as he took a sip of the tea and tried to forget the stupidity of the bot and relax. “Not bad Terrel.” Jack said as he turned around to look at her and saw the bot standing around the side of the elevator in the slanted cutout that allowed Jack to look farther around open space than he could have if the bulkhead ran straight across the back of the bridge from port to port. “Tell you what Terrel, why don’t you take C3PO and teach him how to do something useful besides just standing there.” Smiling with satisfaction at salving another problem. “C3PO.”
C3PO quickly walked over to Jack. “By your command Admiral.”
“What am I supposed to teach a Maintenance Bot Admiral?”
“I don’t care. Teach him Astrophysics or how to polish the silverware or… hell, teach him to be a steward for when you finely get your education straightened out and become a Doctor again.” Turning to the C3PO. “Follow Steward Terrel and follow her orders.”
The bot just stood looking at Jack for several seconds without moving. “CP3O, follow Terrell’s orders. That is an order.”
“I am sorry Admiral but I cannot obey orders from crewmen I am not assigned to without the establishment of specific strict narrow parameters.”
Rolling his eyes. “Fine. What are these parameters?”
“Do you wish me to list them verbally or send them to your PDA Admiral?”
“As complicated as this sounds like it has to be, you best down load them.” Jack reached over and tapped one of the screens to the side of his chair and a short list appeared. “That is all?” Shaking his head. “Shii… I aaa. C3PO, create a secondary command list. Add Steward Terrell onto it. The list is to be in effect any time I have not given you orders. The list is to be active anyplace and any time. The list is…” Jack looked back at the screen to make sure he was saying it right and noticed that the list of specifics now had yes or no boxes next to them with checks on the question boxes he had just answered. Smiling he raised his hand and started checking boxes down the list without speaking.
Turning back around to C3PO a minute later. “There, is that good enough? Will you follow Steward Terrell’s orders now?”
“Yes Admiral, as long as they do not contradict your orders and conform to the code of military procedures.”
Jack looked up across the heavens above him. “Finally. Glory Halleluiah.” Turning to the Steward. “He is all yours Terrel. Have fun.” Jack took a sip of his still steaming tea.
“Come on you rust bucket.” Terrel started for the hatch but when the bot did not follow she turned back around and shook her head. “C3PO, follow me please.”
The Bot still refused to move. And Terrel tried again. "CP3O491538 follow me.”
The Bot turned to follow the Steward.
“Admiral, the bot needs a simpler name than C3PO491538.”
“Excuse me Terrel.” The Bot said. “The Admiral has named me, C3PO What The Fuck or simply, What The Fuck. If that is acceptable to you. Though I do not understand why my name has a slang term in it now that I have accessed Slang terms. You may find that objectionable. You may ask Admiral Turner to add a simpler name if you please.”
Turning to Jack. “Well Admiral. Could you please name your bot something a little more conventional please?”
“I already said that What The Fuck was not his name.”
“Sorry Admiral, you said, That, was not my name and I acknowledged that fact.”
Jack looked up into the heavens and shook his head. “Ok, What The Fuck is not your name. Ok?” Jack turned to face the bot when he got no answer. “Do you understand C3PO?”
“Understand what Admiral Turner?”
“About your name not being What The Fuck?”
“I am sorry Admiral Turner but you were not looking at me. If you want to issue orders to me when you are not looking at me, you need to use my name while being specific in the orders you give me.”
Jack rubbed his temple as he closed his eyes and counted to 5. Then opening them and looking straight at the bot. “Ok. C3PO What The Fuck is not your name. Do you understand me this time?”
“Yes Admiral Turner. What The Fuck is not my name. If you wish you can access my set up program and add or delete names you wish to call me. Do you wish to add a name at this time as Steward Terrell asked?”
Jack started to say no, as disgusted as he was with the whole process but then. “Terrell, you are the one that will be working with it. Do you have a suggestion for a name?”
“Well Admiral. I have always liked Jenny or John if you think the bot is mail.”
“I can be either male or female Admiral in my responses and voice. You can also request female body parts with your preferences for the size of the attributes for my case. You need only issue the order.” The bot said.
Jack chuckled fighting down his disgust. “Don’t tell me. Do you have a preference C3PO to be male or female? After all we need to be politically gender correct here.” Jack said sarcastically.
“My programing officially has no preference Admiral but I have been male since I was activated and do not see any reason to change at this time unless you order such a change.”
Jack opened his eyes and looked at C3PO. “So you do have a preference. Strange. Never thought a bot could.” Taking a breath. “Well now I don’t really care for John.” Staring at C3PO for a few seconds, the corner of his mouth turned up into a crooked smile. “Tell you what. Let’s just change your letters around a little bit with some imagination and call you Chump. Your name is Chump. Do you understand?”
“My name is now Chump Admiral Turner. Thank you.”
Jack shook his head at Chumps, thank you. “You are welcome though I don’t know why you would thank me for giving you a joke for a name.”
“Well, I think it is a fabulous name Chump.” Terrell said with a smile. “Come on Chump, we have work to do.”
The bot Chump turned and followed the Steward as she left the bridge.
Jack closed his eyes as he took a sip of the tea savoring the warmth and sweetness as it washed down his throat thankful that he had one less headache. He leaned back in the chair as he relaxed trying to get his mind around his next task. Then opening his eyes he found himself staring at the back side butt of someone sticking half out of the sensor console in front and below him. While he had no head to look at, he immediately knew who’s butt that was. He had seen it way to many times already. Though this time the pants were half way down leaving half her butt complete with butt crack, bare. (the proverbial Plumbers Butt) though she was anything but a plumber.”
The butt backed out and Winslow looked up at Jack. “Well it is about time you got your butt back here and got your bot straightened out. I could not get that damn bot of yours to do anything. Half the workers that redid the bridge were bots but your bot is worthless. I needed and still do need someone to go down and pick up the parts for my new console and comm gear, not to mention a little help would have been nice once in a while but Nooo... It just stood there like a moronic statue and kept saying. (I a
m Captain Turner’s maintenance bot, C3PO what the fuck).”
Jack spit out the little bite of biscuit he had dunked into his all too hot tea. Covering his face as he said. “It’s Chump now, Winslow…” Jack shook his head.
“I kind of liked what the fu…”
“Chump! Winslow. Chump.”
“Yes Admiral Turner.” The bot said suddenly standing in front of Jack, giving him a start as he looked out at the bot through his fingers.
“Aaaa. Shit… Add Winslow to your Command list and get her what she needs.” Taking a breath. “And…”
The bot was already down the elevator shaft without the elevator or lift. “Ok…” Jack looked back at Winslow and the torn apart console. “I need a current tactical of the cloud Winslow. How long before you get that mess put back together?”
“As soon as I get my parts from electronics fabrication. I am about finished here until I get them.” Smiling at Jack. “But I have the scan from an hour ago and they had hardly moved up the Maze on the outlaying passageways. I can see why those passageways are not used much as long as it has taken them to get even a quarter of the way across the Maze.” Looking back at the console. “This latest upgrade should allow us to clearly see the passageways instead of just the hard targets like ships and rocks the size of small boats or fighters. I have already upgraded the emitters and receivers I got from fabrication hours ago. I just need to finish upgrading the consoles.” Stepping to the other sensor console beside the one she had torn apart. “Here is the last tactical plot…”
“No!” Jack looked around at the crew filled consoles. “I don’t want anyone else to see what the new sensors are…”
“Admiral. Please. Your station is the only one that can see any of the 3D displays unless you want them to. Not even the other sensor console sitting next to either one of these can see each other unless you want them to. They all have privacy curtains around them. Someone has to run the damn sensors but the rest of the bridge does not need to see. A matter of security expedience. The fewer that know fleet plans the less security work that is needed.” She tapped an icon and everything disappeared as the Entire maze was in front of jack showing 5 groups of some 20 plus closely packed ships each surrounded with hundreds of fighters patrolling the cloud around them, making their way around the outer edges. They had yet to reach a quarter of the way across the Maze. At least as far as the overall pictured showed.
Jack tapped the icon for bringing up the ultra-secret Map of the Maze to see just how long and complex those particular routes were when the Comm officer to the side turned and said. “Admiral Spencer on the long range Lasercomm Admiral.”
Jack had been dreading this. Taking a deep breath Jack tapped the Comm and the Admiral appeared in front of him as the map disappeared. “Turner, the last of my Battleships have left for New Home and I am getting ready to pull out. We have mounted the six tankers with the scoops onto the front of the Black Dwarf and will remass as we go.”
“Oh good, you will be following the Battleships then.”
“No! We are sticking with the original plan. I am just getting a few more hours head start on the fleet is all and leaving them a trail they cannot miss. I plan on showing them just how powerful a Dwarf’s 6 Mega Cannons can be when they are upgraded with yourslave technology. They are going to pay dearly when they catch up with me.” Shaking his head with a frown. “I just wish we had time to off load more crewmen but we still have half of them on board.” Taking a breath was the bones in his chest stuck out. “I tried to give you my best and brightest Turner. Don’t let me down. What are your updates on the attack fleet arriving?”
“Well Admiral. We have delayed them a bit. Taken out a few with the survivors making their way around the outside of the maze in what looks like an attempt at a surprise attack.”
“Good. Do you have some idea how many are left?”
Jack looked at Winslow for an answer but got a blank mind and staring eyes that turned puzzled and realized that she could not hear the conversation even though they were only feet apart.
“Aaa… I think it is around a hundred.”
“So you took out between 20 and 30 battleships. Not bad for a few upgraded DD’s and an old beat up Battle Transport able to ambush them in the Maze.”
“Actually Admiral we took out over a hundred of the new and improved Battleships, capturing 32 in various conditions so far with a number of hulks. There turned out to be a lot more reinforcements when shit started hitting the fan. We severely damaged the Way station while the Station and the Congressional Battleships took out most of the transports around the Bay thanks to panicking gunners. At least I hope they were not ordered to take out the defenseless transports. I estimate at least a hundred transports blown to hell by the station.”
“Ok, you think you destroyed a hundred so you may have destroyed 50 and you said you captured 32 intact battleships or are you counting hulks?”
Taking a sip of tea and then a deep breath. “Actually the 32 are the still operational ships we captured intact with their crews. Tell you what Admiral Spencer. I will forward the raw data. I have not had time to compile my battle report yet with the exact numbers. It will also give you some of their tactics and weaknesses. At least of the Cannon Fodder they lead off with without Carriers or fighter protection. The problem is their best is what is left and they have some 10 carriers with a few thousand fighters we think since we do not know exactly how many each Carrier holds. We know little about this new class of carrier but we estimate at least a hundred and probably twice that if not 300 fighters for each. The problem now that they have changed their tactics, massing their ships with fighters scouting the cloud is that we won’t be able to get close enough to ambush the strung out ships like we were doing. The corridors they are taking around the outside look at a glance to be much wider than the normal central corridors allowing them to stay bunched up. I was hoping to use the Battleships we Captured but found out that they are little better than pyres. Their weapons burn out quickly and their Fusion Power Core is easy to breech and blow the ship, if you can get around the sides and hit between the engines and weapons birthing section.”
Shaking his head as he turned the screen and zoomed out from the Maze wondering if he could get a scan of Delta 7 and the Admiral’s fleet. “No, I am sending them to New Home for upgrades and hope the Maze slows the enemy down enough for my DD reinforcements to get here. Otherwise they are going to blow through us like meteors. Hell! As outnumbered as we are even with my reinforcements, they will still get through us but it may take a few hours longer hopefully.”
And then his eyes got big as he swallowed. The screen zeroed in on the area around Delta 7. “Admiral, do you know you have some 30 Battleships at the waypoint station down from Delta 7 and it looks like more squadrons are headed that way from all over the rock. No wait only the new battleships are headed that way. The old Battleships left over from the failed attack are either in The Rock or still at entry Staging areas on guard. That does not make any sense.”
Admiral Halsey appeared next to Admiral Spencer. “Yes it does. All the new battleships are being manned by Earth supplying the masses of Crewmen instead of from around the Republics colonies. Congress citing that with Earths large population and unemployment problem, it could afford the manpower easier than the Colonies, pushed the bill through before the Colonies had time to even read it let alone realize the down side and how stupid it was. Recruiting has been ordered stopped in the Colonies with the Bootships slapped into mothballs at Q-19 with the rest of the retired ships from the Navy and the cloud.”
“Well Admiral, we could use those Bootships at New Home. Some 80% of the Earth Crews we have captured have volunteered to join the Real Navy. They are sick of the Communism ruled Earth and want to fight the Spiders and not bomb Colony planets which is all they have been training for. Most would also like to immigrate with their families if we could get them off of Earth.” Chuckling. “Anyway most have spent a lot of time
on The Game but have only had a couple of weeks in a crude boot camp on Earth and not even the moon let alone Zero Gee space. I need to put the 30,000 I have so far through at least 12 weeks of our training if not 30 weeks.” Jack watched a flight of fighters out his side port attacking a DD. The DD firing back with their guns on low powered training settings. The Fighters were not doing very well. Most of them getting knocked out before they got close. The 8 inch guns set on wide beam like shot guns taking a devastating toll at long range. But then according to the tabs on the fighters, they were new pilots practicing their first attacks in real life.
“That would be hard to arrange Turner. I can’t do anything with all the new Political Admirals arriving and replacing more and more of the top brass. Combat brass that is. The Political appointees don’t seem to be interested in anything but Combat Commands and the new Battleships which leaves me and most of the old guard in place taking care of the supply and maintenance side with more restrictions on what I can do as fare as moving ships in and out of The Rock and around the cloud every day.” Shaking his head.
“What I want to know is how you suddenly seem to know so much about what is going on around the Nebula Cloud. Is your supper eyesight that good?”
Jack suddenly found himself holding his breath for a good 10 seconds. Letting it out slowly he took a drink of the still too hot tea but hardly felt it buying time. “Admirals. We, a certain researcher, building off of human and slave tech and her own research has developed a new sensor that can see everything in the Nebula including the Maze and The Rock with extreme precision and detail. And she is in the process of upgrading it even more.” When both Admirals continued to stare at him Jack continued. “It is already sensitive enough to tell the difference between the old pre attack battleships and the new builds that are some 25% bigger at least around this section of the Cloud. The differences between the old new and the new, new battleships is a little harder at this time but she is upgrading them yet again as we speak. I can even see scout fighters headed your way Admiral Spencer from the Waypoint Station up your Corridor, they should be at your position in a couple of hours. If my calculations are correct. The sensors have been off line for an hour now for upgrades but I will get back to you as soon as they are back on line for an update on the fighters.”
Battleship Destroyer 2 (Battleship Destoryer) Page 115
