Ringship Discretion (22 page)

Angela spoke. "The plates should take about a week to get.  Then we have to mount them and calibrate them.  That will take maybe another week."

Ben said. "Otherwise, its just patching bullet holes, getting new suits or replacing parts for the old ones.  We have already refueled the main reactor.

The captain pointed in the direction of the main hatch. "What about that lock assembly that was jamming our main airlock?

Ben cupped his chin with his right hand. "We are trying to get that off.  We are going to have to burn it off, fix the hatch door and replace the seals."

Amelia spoke up. "And I found replacement glass for the console, but with the evacuation, everything is outrageously expensive."

Attie, with the look of concern on his face asked. "Speaking of evacuation. When is the Big Sis fleet supposed to arrive? And do we have enough time to get out of here?"

Angela stepped forward. "Captain, they will be here in 16 days.  It looks like we are going to just have enough time to get the ship repaired by then."

The captain looked at Angela. "And what about you? Aren't you worried about desertion?"

Angela was a little shocked at the question. She cleared her throat. "Well, no one knows I'm alive. All of my comrades and superior officers are dead. As far as the military is concerned, I died on the Yorktown. Plus, I figure where we are going, who's there to care?"

The captain nodded. "Well, it's good to have you with us. Again, I want to thank you for saving me and Amelia.  And you too Ben."

Ben smiled and looked at Angela who was nodding.  She looked back at him and a smile grew on her face..

The captain looked over at the fridge. "Damn, I'm hungry. Everyone back to work. Lets get this boat ready."

CHAPTER 12: The Final Day

The breakers start to pop,

As skyfire begins to drop.

Panic to change our venue

To where the stars streak deep blue.

The captain yelled. "It's reset. Try it now!"

Ben yelled back. "OK."  There was a spark and a cascade of loud popping noises.

The captain, standing in the dark again said. "Nope! All the breakers blew again!"

Ben yelled. "Dammit!"

Amelia walked into the engine room with two cups of hot chocolate. "Here Attie."

Attie looked over with his flashlight. "Oh, great. Thank you!"

She looked at the breaker panel. "Still can't get it?"

He shook his head. "There has to be a short somewhere.  We have isolated it to one of the new drive plates or its associated systems.  I think Ben is going to swap out panels and see if its the plate itself.  Anyway, how are you coming along?"

She sipped her chocolate. "I think we are ready to go.  The new window is beautiful. So clear and the new heads up display function works great.  We also got the new radar installed, but that doesn't look so nice.  It's really just bolted on what's left of that part of the ship."

He grinned. "Well, as long as it works."

Ben yelled "Captain. I am going to go out and swap the plates.  Shouldn't take me but a couple of hours."

The captain yelled back. "A couple of hours?!  The Big Sis fleet will be here by then! Can we lift off without it?"

Ben yelled. "Just a second..."

The captain drank some of the hot chocolate while he waited. 

Finally Ben appeared, reached over and flipped a breaker.  The lights came back on. "OK. We could take off without it, but we would have to take the opposite plate off line to balance the thrust.  We won't be able to accelerate very fast. Remember, we only have 4 plates on the back now with this new warp design, so that only leaves us 2 plates to lift off on.  If we lose one plate for some reason, Amelia's going to have to flip the ship over and do some fancy flying to keep us from going splat.  And to be honest captain, I still don't trust the thruster system and certainly not as a backup flight system.  It's been pieced back together, but it needs to be completely replaced."

The captain thought for a minute. "Well, get AJ to help you swap out the plate and make it fast."

Ben said "Yes, sir." and ran out of the engine room.

Attie looked at Amelia. "Well, let's get back up top and see what we can do to get out of here."

Amelia sat in the pilots chair as Attie stood behind her. "Wow, that really does look good."

Amelia nodded in agreement and said. "I am going to get us preflighted, except the main drives. You want to help me?"

Attie said "Sure" and hopped into the co-pilot's seat.

Helen walked onto the bridge. "Captain. All the food and supplies are stowed and ready.  Everything is strapped down and secure.  We are ready whenever you are."

The captain looked back as Amelia was calling out things on the preflight check list. "Have everyone get their suits ready.  We are going to be leaving fully suited."

She nodded and went to tell the others.

Twenty minutes later Amelia looked at Attie. "Well, that's it. We are ready with the exception of the drive plates, which is no minor detail.  The check list for this new warp system and its controls are ridiculous."

Attie looked over. "So, you know how it all works...right?"

Amelia hesitantly looked back at him. "Well, I think so.....see..once we are in space I enter our direction here and hit this to create a warp bubble.  This display is to control the differential strength between the rear and front.  It's what makes us, well our bubble, move through space. We don't actually move much, so there won't be any sense of thrust."

Attie looked closely at the controls. "So, we will be weightless the whole time?"

She nodded. "Yes, we can't turn the artificial gravity on or it might destabilized the field....and that would be bad.  In fact, Attie, I think we should just unplug the internal system all together."

He thought for a second. "Yeah, that's probably not a bad idea.  So, how "fast" can we go?"

She looked at him and gave a little shrug.  "I don't actually know, but from everything I have read on the net and from what everyone around here can deduce, somewhere around a light year a day.  They say it can go faster with more power, but this is based on our reactor output."

Attie sat back in his chair. "So, roughly 40 days.  Good.  Although we appear to have enough supplies for 4 times that long."

Amelia looked back towards the galley. "Yeah, they have really done a great job getting us ready. I think this is the most prepared we have ever been for anything." She turned, looked back at him and grinned. "Of course, having 2 million credits didn't hurt either."

Attie sat up. "Do we have much left?"

She said. "Not much, maybe 50,000 or so."

Angela walked onto the bridge reading a tablet. "Captain. Looks like we have really dealt Big Sis a blow. According to these reports, our ships have been warping in on the Big Sis stragglers 10 or 20 at a time and annihilating them.  This includes the inner solar system as well.  There have been reports of a few more Earth, I mean Blueball ships with warp capability, but not enough to matter."

The captain looked back at her. "Great. But what about the carrier task force?"

She pursed her lips. "I don't think we have the strength to stop it before it gets here.  Hell, it's pretty much here already, but from the talk I hear, they are going to mount an offensive some time today.  The have set up some planetary defenses around the city, but it won't make much difference."

The captain said "Shit. We really have to get out of here." He turned and pushed the intercom button. "Ben. How's the swap coming?!"

A minute later Ben came over the intercom.  "We have the working plate back on where the suspect plate was.  We were about to test it.  Captain, can you go down the engine room and reset all the breakers again?"

As the captain got up from his chair, "On my way.  Turn on your TC implant, so we can talk."

A minute later the captain started to say "OK, they're res..." and then he remembered to think instead. "Ben, OK, they're reset."

Ben though back. "Here goes nothing."

Thirty seconds went by.  The captain thought to Ben. "Nothing is happening."

Ben thought back. "That's good....well...and bad.  It means it is the plate that's the problem.  We don't have another plate, so we were going to install it in the other location and see if it works there.  I don't know a lot about how these work together captain, so some of this is guess work."

The captain thought. "Great, we're going on an interstellar trip with a broken ship that we don't know how to fix.....oops...did I think that out loud?"

Ben thought back. "Yep...to both."

The captain thought "Do you need me to come out there?"

Ben thought "No, stay there.  I may need you to reset breakers or something else."

The captain sat down. "OK, I'll just sit...." His thought was interrupted by the ship shaking and then the thunderous sound of an explosion.  He heard Ben's thought of "What the hell was that?" at the same time he thought it.

Over the intercom Amelia yelled. "They're hitting the city from orbit. The ships are here!"

Ben could hear the captain's unintentional thoughts of "Shit...Come on Ben! Let's go....'

The captain hit the intercom. "Everyone in the ship suit up. Someone bring me my suit down to the engine room!"

The ship and hangar continued to shake as Ben and AJ worked furiously to attach the plate.

Ben was ratcheting the last bolt when he saw a ceiling tile slam to the floor.  He thought to the captain. "OK. That's it.  Energizing it now."

The captain stood up to Ben's thought and a second later breakers started popping. He thought back as the ship shook. "Ben! They popped again! Shit! Are we screwed here?"

Ben thought back. "Hold on!....stupid..stupid ....this goes on there and that goes here..dumb ass...what the hell is wrong.."

The captain listened to Ben's thoughts ramble on until Ben thought loudly at him "OK. Reset the breakers again!"

The captain went up the panel resetting the breakers. Click, click click..."OK done."

Ben yelled to AJ "Get in the ship and get suited up!"

AJ nodded and ran.

The captain thought to Ben. "Nothing's happening...is that good?"

Ben thought "Hell yeah, that's good!  That'll do it.  I'm coming in. Tell Amelia we're ready."

The captain yelled "Yes!" and hit the intercom. "OK Amelia. That should do. Start your preflight on the warp system. Everyone else get strapped in."

Doc tapped the captain on the shoulder making him jump. "Here's your suit."

The captain turned. "Oh, thanks Doc. Get back up there and get strapped in."

He saluted and headed back up.

Ben threw his tools into the airlock, bent over and was pushing the ramp away when he noticed all the tiles falling from the hangar ceiling.  He backed up and shut the outer door.  He hit the intercom "OK, I'm in. We're ready."

When she heard that, she got on the radio. "Hangar control, this is the Discretion. Request you open the hangar for our departure."  There was no response. She repeated the request.

Angela commented. "They may have evacuated."

Amelia was about to fist the comm panel in frustration when she heard in a heavy breathing voice, "Roger that Discretion, depressurizing and opening the doors now."

She took a deep breath and looked at Angela with her eyes wide, then pushed the comm button. "Thank you control.  We will be departing as soon as they are opened."

Control responded. "Good luck Discretion. I'm getting the hell out of here. Over."

When Attie came up on the bridge, he could see that the hangar doors were opening. He strapped himself into the co-pilot's seat as Amelia continued to go through the warp checklist.

With the hangar now open, they could see explosions and the sparkle of weapons fire from orbit. Huge columns of smoke were rising everywhere and there were occasional beams that seemed to be emanating from the city. 

A nearby building began to sparkle, glow and then exploded.  Attie sat up in his straps. "Screw the checklist. Amelia. Let's go!"

She nodded. "Yeah, I think your right."  She engaged the drives and the Discretion lifted off the hangar floor.  She slid the ship out and started drifting to port. "Whoa..that's a little weird..."

Attie looked at her to check the expression on her face, trying to decide whether he should worry or not.

The ship stopped and then started to rise very fast.  The thrust pushed everyone down in their seats. She said "Boy, this things got some kick, but damn it's sensitive."

The thin atmosphere quickly faded away and the blackness of space engulfed the new window.  Amelia pushed a few buttons and red and green triangles, squares and other shapes appeared against the background.  "Here is the tactical display for all the ships we can't see yet."