Battleship Destroyer (28 page)

Jack’s arms
started to blur as his fingers flew across the virtual control board keys around him as his speed slowly got even faster. Oblivious to the Ensign's twisting and jerking.  Figures and equations started to crawl across the air in front of him. Only to disappear and start over again. Soon instead of disappearing they started moving off to the side to be replaced by new calculations that where discarded or shunted aside as well. Sometimes he would grab a sentence of calculations, slap them back in front of him and make a change that sometimes affected half the other calculations already floating around him and then throw it back out of the way to go on to the next.

The Ensign slowly regained the use of her leg and arm as she watched Jack work
while trying to keep from sliding the rest of the way out of the chair.

A
few minutes later, Officers started trickling in to take seats either at the table or along the bulkheads around the compartment. The Propulsion Chief, (A full Commander) in charge of the ships propulsion engines came in, sat at the table across from Jack and started going over his calculations. He finally got up, walked around almost tripping over the still half paralyzed Ensign next to Jack and pointed. "What is that all about Ensign?"

Jack's hands suddenly stopped flying over the board as he looked at where the officer pointed and then waved his hand trying to shoo the interruption away. "I don't know yet but it is the only thing that makes sense." Jack grabbed a calculation from the other side of the table and plopped it dow
n next to that one. "I think these will intersect and make us our little black holes into subspace to create our drive but I just haven't gotten that far yet. Now leave me the hell alone will you. I don't have the time to conduct classes right now." Jack swallowed as he suddenly recognized the Engineering Chief from morning musters and then the Ensign half under his feet trying to crawl back into the chair with one dead leg and a still uncooperative arm, with what looked like drool coming out of the corner of her mouth, with a little portion of his brain before going back to work as his fingers speeded up again.

The Chief's face grew red as he went back to his seat
, glancing down at the Ensign as he stepped back over her without really noticing her. The Ensign stopped trying to climb back into her seat and dragged her dead leg along the deck to sit on the deck next to Jack and without standing up or bothering Jack as she sat on her butt,  unpinned the ensign tabs off the jacket's collar with one hand, kind of. Realizing now why the Captain had Jack put on her jacket, she zipped it the rest of the way up his front to hide his light blue petty officer's jumpsuit. The jacket had been baggy on her intentionally, but it was tight enough to almost pop the zipper on him. Then dragged her butt back to her chair and succeeded by flopping and squirming, using her good leg and arm to climb back into it. Getting strange looks and smiles from some of the officers arriving around the table and edges of the compartment as she wormed her way up.

Jack did not seem to even noti
ce until he licked his dry lips, turned, leaning toward her as she sat half in and half out of the chair and asked. "Could you get me a glass of water or a... better yet, a cola? Oh and… and... A... A  scrambled egg and mayo sandwich would be wonderful mom. Please. I am starving." His hands only slowed while he talked. Glancing at her with a frown his hands stopped cold. "Oops! Ah never mind I'm sorry Ensign. Forget it." Staring at her eyes for a second. "You look awfully familiar but no. Can't be."  Then turning back as his hands started blurring across the board again. Retreating back into his own world as the Ensign turned in shock for a good minute. He had mistaken her for the only decent person besides Pop in his family. Didn't matter, he was still a low life ass hole and she was going to torture him to death. Just as soon as she could get him alone. But damn, that stun gun hurt a lot more than she had thought it would. She never wanted to do that again. Looking down at the stun gun still on the deck, she was not sure she even wanted to pick it up again. Damn it hurt. She squirmed around and tapped the comm to the Officers Pantry.

The Captain of the ship
that had sent him down there, walked in taking up one of the seats across from Jack next to the Engineering Chief. Looking up at a copy of Jacks calculations that had been turned around for anyone on that side of the table to see. Her face getting more baffled as she read and talked to her Chief Engineer about them. Then as she pointed at a set of calculations discussing them, every screen went blank for a couple of seconds. The compartment went silent as everyone started looking around at everyone else. "What happened to the power?" The Captain said. "Someone get the power….."

T
he screens flashed to life again. A dozen rows of calculations appeared above one another over the middle of the table and started growing into lines. Working their way across the air, scrolling around to the left across the compartment in midair. Exchanging information with each other as they proceeded. Starting and stopping to keep up with each other. Finally the rows of calculations started merging together. First into 8 rows and then 6, then 5 rows that went on for yards too finally drop down to just 2 rows that suddenly ended into one single line. The single line finally stopped ending in a simple number. 

Jack jumped up and punched the air above him. "All right it works! It fucking works! I can't frigging believe it.
It is only half the thrust of our existing engines but it is a start. Can you imagine how much thrust it would put out if I started with a clean sheet with a bigger diameter instead of trying to replace what we have." He said as he looked at the Ensign smiling still half sideways in her seat.

Sitting back down
he cleared the screen and his fingers started to tap the keys again putting up a sentence of calculations. "Ok now let's see if we really can get everything into the existing case and make it work so all they have to do is swap engines to upgrade the ships. The single short sentence started growing again as he typed and then the equations took on a life of their own. Branching out to two lines and then three. Adding lines every few seconds. Suddenly pieces of equipment started popping into existence next to the lines as they continued to expand as Jack's fingers slowed and he finally sat back to let the machine do its work. This time the lines did not stop with a dozen branches but kept multiplying and multiplying. The typing getting smaller and smaller to fit into the area as little drawings of equipment kept appearing next to sections of lines that either ended or grew into more lines and equipment seemingly ever expanding as they worked their way around the compartment. "Luckily most of what we need is already in production." Jack said to no one in particular. "The only thing that is really new is how the gravity coils are wound and programed."

Finally
with hundreds of lines covering the virtual screens reaching the overhead, the Admiral walked in. "What the hell is going on here. How dare you start without me."

Jack did not hear and continued to work
, though his hands only occasionally reached out to tap his virtual screen. He seemed to be simply guiding and making decisions the computer kept asking him. Though what those questions were, few if anyone could keep track of as they simply popped up along the lines of calculations only to disappear just as fast with Jack having already answered them with a flick of his hand across the keys. "Ya, this is just a massive upgrade of the coils actually. So far all the old engines original auxiliary systems are fitting just fine, though again with alterations to fit the needs of the new engine."

The Ensign watched Jack. Not realizing that she was the only other person that was able to keep up with Jack
, reading what the Computer was asking and even having a fraction of a second to think about the answered before Jack answered it.

The
ship's Captain turned to the Admiral and smiled. "It seems the crewman I told you about has finished the calculations for the basic theories of a Blackhole drive. While I ordered him to do just that, I have waited for you to arrive before we start asking him anything about it. But it seems that he has taken it upon himself to actually start designing a Blackhole engine to replace our existing engines. That is what you are looking at now."

"Very well Captain." The Admiral sat down next to the Captain.
"How sure are you about the accuracy of these so called calculations of this crewman?"

"It is the computer making the calculations Admiral, using the
theories and guidance of the crewman. If the Computer says it is possible then I have no reason to think otherwise. It is the Militaries Triple X program and will not allow crap programing. Everything has to check out a hundred ways or it stops everything cold. I have seen it happen thousands of times over the years while designing our existing drive engines and the battleships as well as this ship and especially its monster engines ten time the size or the battleship engines. Though I have never seen this program run this long without slamming to a stop, while a whole room full of scientists and engineers tried to figure out why and correct their mistake. I am also transmitting every key stoke of his work to Fleet Command Rock for them to check and verify later when they receive it." Pointing to the Chief at the table next to him. "For now the Programing Chief and his department are running checks on the computer looking for viruses and flaws in the root program and anything questionable about the programs integrity. He will tell us if he finds anything wrong." 

The calculation
lines slowed down to finally stop, leaving a small blank area directly in front of Jack surrounded by thousands of calculations and small diagrams of thousands of pieces of equipment around the compartment. Jack slowly turned his head and surveyed the compartment with his eyes darting around the packed rows of equations and little drawings (most with military part numbers over them). He had done this dozens of times designing his ships in The Game. Flicking his hand to point at something to change it and continued. Finally he looked around satisfied, waved his hand across the blank area closing them to make a clap and the small equipment diagrams suddenly rushed toward the center of the compartment to assemble themselves.

The Admiral looked up
and watched as the new Blackhole drive engine finished taking shape. It was a nondescript tube with its length some 20 times its diameter with a few modules slapped on the outside. "That looks just like our Battle ship engines. What kind of crap are you trying to pull here Captain?"

Jack hit another icon and the engine shuddered,
seemed to fart a bright ball out the donut at the one end and then sit still and dead with red ghosts of equipment appearing throughout the engine . Jack hit the icon again rebuilding the engine and the same thing happened. Turning he expanded the equations again and grabbed a section of the calculations that had started flashing, with his hand he moved the calculations around until he was in front of the flashing set. Studying the numbers for a few seconds Jack reached up and changed the equation and then hit another Icon. The calculations started changing around the compartment and then parts of the engine started changing and reassembling itself as several modules changed positions.

The Captain
looked around at the Admiral. "As you already know Admiral, the enemy are using some kind of advanced propulsion engine that seems to have a great range advantage over anything we have that can out run our fastest ships as you already know. This young man thinks it is a reactionless massless drive he calls a Blackhole engine. Our ship drive experts after a year have already agreed with what the crewman pointed out and it only took him one look at one of the new Intelligence photo's we just received from our scout drones before they were destroyed. This young man thinks we can re-engine our ships with what he calls this Blackhole drive, giving us drive parity with the enemy ships. Giving us a chance to out maneuver them or out run them if the battle does not go our way." Looking up at the engine hovering in the middle of the compartment.

When the engine
and the recalculations finally stopped jerking around, Jack hit the start Icon again and the stern of the engine grew bright and then entire length of the engine collapsed into itself sucking up the entire engine into a pin point hole until jack slapped the stop icon. Going back to a new flashing calculation, he changed it and then several others that were only highlighted in yellow.

"It looks like thi
s Black hole drive engine is our only hope of producing a ship that can keep up and defeat these monsters." The Captain frowned. "You know as well as I Admiral, after losing the main fleet last year when these monsters first showed up, all our eggs are in this fleet's basket. We have no second or reserve fleet to replace us if we are slaughtered, for at least a year. And with their powerful drive with no need to re-mass, all they have to do is retreat staying out of our Battleship’s gun range until we run out of mass and then come and pick our sitting ducks off at will."

The Admiral smiled.
"That is why we plan to use a small scouting fleet to lure them into a trap they could not run from."

Jack slapped the start icon again and the engine sputtered to life
and kept running.  Again Jack started running his hands over the virtual keyboard and the engine started to shake as the thrust figures above it started going up and up until the whole thing seemed to blow up into a million pieces for a fraction of a second and then disappear back into a small black hole.