Battleship Destroyer (125 page)

Uncovering his
ears Jack was shocked after hearing only the sweat melodic speech from her before.

She said a few words in that
beautiful melodic language before switching to English. "Never!" She said calming down. "Every time he rescued and took a wounded solder down to the aid station he had to tell me how proud he was that you had wanted him to do something so important. How wonderful he felt each time he saved someone. He wanted me to talk to you about making him part of your marines and being trained to do a better job of it. To become a paramedic he said your troops called them. He loved it and you for giving him such a wonderful chance as help so many others." Red wrapped her arms around Jack again, locking lips with him again sucking the breath out of him. Parting she smile. "I love you for giving him the chance to realize a dream he never ever even imagined and gave his life gladly for." Jack's face grimaced finding it hard to breath as tears started running down his cheeks and hers as she hugged him and started rocking. "Don't grieve, his memories and pride will live on in our child's memories love. As will all those that gave their lives for you."

Jack could not believe how many times people
seemed so damn glad to be fallowing his orders even though it could and did mean their deaths. He simply could no longer deal with all the deaths as they suddenly piled up into him including his most recent victim on the bridge. He forced himself not to cry in front of everyone. He knew his brother would have never let him live it down. Trying to force himself to stop he simply stopped breathing as his muscles knotted up in his face throat and chest without realizing it. Though his suit quickly noticed and started screaming with his body so far out of balance.

Red noticed to and turned her head
back and started breathing for him as she quickly understood, wiping his tears from his cheeks with her large fingers feeling the rock hard muscles under his jaws down his neck. The Ensign tried to pry him out of her embrace trying to help and finally hit his suits emergency release.

T
he suit fell apart around Jack leaving Red with only pieces of his suit in her arms just after she had taken his breath away ready to give him another, the Ensign laid Jack on the glass deck placing her mouth over his, giving him a deep breath. She felt at his neck getting a pulse and bent back over giving him another breath only to have him cup his hand over the back of her head to keep her from backing away and held her there as he breathed back filling up her lungs. She tried to jerk back but was held until she relaxed and started running her hand slowly over his face and body. Breathing back into and then taking his breath back in again.

A half dozen breaths later they parted as she sat back on her knees flushed
, biting her lower lip staring at Jack.

"Well now. That was better than a paper bag." Looking around Jack tried
an embarrassed smile as he sat up. "Red, I don't know what that was all about but I certainly did not need to breathe for a bit afterward." Standing up in what was little more than underwear but not much as he looked at the suit that was broken open down its back as well as the front laying in pieces across the glass deck. "Looks like it will take more time than I have right now to fix that." He stood there for several minutes looking around the bubble as the Ensign and Red stood on either side of him trying to figure out what to do. Neither of them willing to leave Jack’s side.

Finally
Jack shook his head as he looked back down the shaft toward the hulk and the Red Pepper sitting docked to it through the glass. “Ok, now how the hell did it wind up painted bright red?”

Pan stepped forward. “Captain. Do not be alarmed. The color is a natural result of the crystal we covered
your ship in to repair and increase its armored rating against God weapons and the ships natural foam steel hull. The high temperatures the ship was exposed to inside the bubble fused them together. We did not have the time to pre-coat the ship’s hull to keep the steel hull from degrading over time from electrolysis but what you humans would say we lucked out. Without the coating, the steel hull rusted from the immense heat into the crystal strengthening them both and creating a perfectly smooth surface resulting in a mirror that will reflect 99.99999 % of any weapons radiation hitting the hull. The same process we coat the inside of the gun tubes with. An outer surface we have only been able to produce in the laboratory since heating an entire ship’s hull to the needed temperatures has been impossible before this. As you have noticed inside the bubble, your ship is now immune to the God Energy weapons.”

Jack looked at Pan
finally closing his mouth. "Well right now it is an immune hulk. At least we know we can destroy your God Spider Battleships.”

Red turned to Pan. Her face turning bright green into what Jack would in time find out was furry as her voice boomed. “You have not told him yet?”

“What? Told me what?” Jack had not had time to cover his ears as he tried to gather his thoughts.

Pan looked at Jack. Sorrow flooding across her face. “Please forgive me Captain Turner. But all the ships you have encountered and destroyed since we have been with you have all been what we would call Cruisers. The Battleships are all much
, much bigger.”

Jack’s mouth dropped open for a few seconds as he
stared stone faced at Pan. “Ahhh. Just how much bigger Pan.” He said slowly, picking his words.

“At least 10
times the length than one of our fully functioning and equipped Cruisers Captain, Sir. The engines alone are two of your miles long.” Pan bowed deeply barring her neck to Jack. “I did not want to burden you with trivial facts while our lives were still in doubt. Please I beg you to look after my children if you take my life for such a….”

“Enough with this taking you
r life crap. Did you at least send that little fact with all the information we sent to my fleet command?”

“Yes Captain. All the ship dimensions and schematics of the God Battleships were included
with the data about all the God Ships.”

“Ok, so how many battleships are in your fleet attacking the Republic?”

Pan stood up strait, taking a deep breath as her boobs expanded out the short distance the flexible chest area of her suit would allow. “Only 12 Captain. The only survivors of the 25,000 Battleships originally in the fleet. Each Battleship remaining is now the Command ship of one of the 1,000 ship fleets of heavy cruisers protecting the last remaining Battleship Engine Factory Planet of the Clan and the fleet’s supply transports. The Clan had at one time a hundred cruiser fleets tasked with protecting the thousands of transport ships in each of them and the factories.

Shaking his head Jack closed his eyes
, to shocked to say anything. He turned away from Pan for a few seconds before speaking again as he looked around the huge bubble. “Enough sightseeing." Frowning. "Let's get back to the ship and to work. I was going to wait until the ship cooled but the Admiral blew that all to hell. I have a feeling shit is going to hit the fan as soon as the Admiral gets here and I want the ship in better shape than it is in now before I have to turn it over to someone else." Looking down at the suit pieces he bent down and picked up one of the half side pieces only to have Red take it from him and then picked up the rest of the suit. Watching her for a few seconds Jack glanced at Pan then turned around and headed back down the walkway and started calling department heads to get the needed work going. He first needed to get the hoses he had seen before back into the ship to start cooling it down with the only thing he had an excess of, water.

B
ut no one would answer their comms’.

Getting frustrated he
finally dropped his arm to his side as the platform stopped at the bottom of the Core shaft. "Pan, you think your people can rebuild our ship's cooling fins?"

"Yes Captain but we need to reinstall the factory to manufacture the parts
for the cooling fins as well as everything else your ship needs."

"Ok so install it in the tanks we have cleaned out for it.
I will have the fire hose crews start cooling them first."

"I am sorry Captain but we were only able to take the basic modules. Many of the support structures had to be left behind. These support structures are needed to run the factory. They can be rebuilt in time elsewhere but for now returning the modules and running the factory here will enable us to repair our ship's bow section to house personnel again as well as the cooling and landing fins and replace
the many weapons and sensors that were destroyed and damaged in combat and the blast that almost destroyed the ship."

"Fine. Just get it done Ok."
Jack frowned at more delays but at least he could get the ship repaired. Jack looked around at the crewmen, human and alien alike surrounding him as they stood there waiting for the hatch to open, he wondered how the hell they were supposed to fight ships 10 times the size of these monsters. Though it looked like they had plenty of Cruisers to worry about even after losing this little fleet. He just needed to figure out a way to keep the Destroyer Fleet Admiral from dropping by for a few days, even a week and, they just may have enough of the ship repaired to make it actually look like a ship again before the Admiral simply junked it. 

He was tired
, embarrassed from breaking down over Red surviving a few minutes before and starving and mad at himself for showing weakness and a little shocked at the bad news about the Battleships.  What he really was pissed off about though was the fact he seemed to be starting to accept that he had to order men and women to their deaths to save the Republic and his family. The woman in the torpedo magazine was damn bad example. Yet he knew this was not the game anymore but still could not understand how the hell he was put in Command of this motley ship and crew and was responsible for so many that had died.

Jack was
ready to bite off the first head he saw to make sure none of them ever had to die again and repairing the ship was the first step. The Red Pepper had too much work that needed done to it and too little time to do the repairs in to put up with being ignored. He was totally in The Game now. The scared little kid was long gone and he was going to see just how much weight he could throw around just as soon as he found the lazy Officers that dared to ignore his calls. That was until the hatch opened as he suddenly remembered what Pan had said about the factory planet.

All he could do was stare out the open hatch as a deafening noise hit his ears.
The boat lock bay deck was packed with thousands of humans and aliens down every open lock in sight. The department heads stood beside the hatch smiling. A big band made up of the strangest instruments he had ever seen mixed with the normal human fare was playing strange music much too loud but it was a catchy tune and Jack suddenly found himself being picked up and passed around over the heads of the huge crowd in only his jump suit with no protection from anything as everyone seemed to want to touch or shake his hands, pat his back or head or some other part of his body depending on the alien's customs. For seemingly hours, no matter how hard he tried to get down and back to duty, he sailed around the deck, in and out of the locks, drinks and food being shoved in his hands or face that he finally just took for granted were safe by aliens who wanted to eat or drink with him. Never getting more than a bight or single drink before being passed on to the next. Tasting some of the best food and drink he had ever tasted while some he had to fight to keep from spitting out again making him gag.

Finally
Jack was deposited back in front of the elevator beside Pan, her twin, her family, Red with her sister and the flying dog on her shoulder and the Ensign. To stuffed and too drunk to do anything but stand unsteadily on his feet with the Ensign and Red under each arm supporting him. After shaking the hands of the department heads still there (telling him that they had the ship well in hand, that he was off duty) and half the crew (human and the original aliens that had ship assignments), Pan, Red and the Ensign started dragging him around to spend more time talking with the leaders of the different races of aliens instead of just passing by. Though most of the talking was by the aliens thanking him for saving their lives and giving them their freedom than by Jack who was happy by this time to just veg out and drink without having to talk and spent most of his time starring at faces that continued to get stranger and stranger and the drinks more interesting as the night wore on.

----------------------------------------------

The Ensign finally put Jack to bed late the next morning after Red had carried him to their quarters in spite of the Ensigns objections, giving him a shot to counter act the inevitable hangover later and laid down beside him. She knew his crew, still in battle suits complete with helmets strapped to their sides when not needed, had the ship, the new refugees well in hand. Already making repairs to the ship with Recon missiles spreading out around the bubble, the guns primed and manned with skeleton crews just in case something unexpected were to develop. Though the Vice Admiral of the Destroyer Fleet had sent a message the First Officer had not bothered to forward to his Captain during the party. It could wait.

The message had
simply said that the Admiral did not believe the reports and was going to spend the next week scouring and remapping the maze for enemy ships including the one Jack had admitted his incompetence in letting get away.