Battleship Destroyer (20 page)

She studied the
devastated Jack as tears ran down his cheeks and he just gave up. Finally she touched her ear for a few seconds and then smiled. "Ok yes. I think you are right. The best thing for him... Jack; we are going to make one last decision for you. All other decisions about how you do in our Navy are going to be up to you after this. You can fail miserably on your own getting into trouble and destroying yourself in this unfair Navy or work hard, get the certified degrees I am offering you, become an officer and fly at whatever you choose including battleship pilot, but it will be all up to you and what you decide and do. You will find your ship assignment on the list when you get back to your barracks. Dismissed Third Class Gravtech Turner."

As Jack started to leave
, tears streaming down his eyes, she spoke up. "Mr. Turner. If your assignment is not to your liking, I could assign you too the fleet Research Directorate as a research technician but you would be limited in your opportunities for advancement and never fly as a pilot. The Admiralty would love to entice your grandfather back to the Directorate now that his aaa, the accusations against him have proven baseless." She knew that would be the worst thing for Jack to do and wind up destroying him in a few years at most and probably only months when the Masters of Science at the Research Directorate treated him almost as bad as what he had on his tramp ship. Without any friendly faces he would certainly suicide sooner than later. But she had to follow orders and at least offer him the posting. Thank Godstar they could not tell her how or when and she made sure he had committed to the ship before she offered it. She just hoped she had read him right as she waited for him to answer.

Jack turned back getting a determined look on his face
as he wiped his face with his sleeves. "No thanks. I am going to become a Battleship pilot if it kills me." Saluting he turned and left. She smiled as he closed the hatch behind him. Then added a red flag to his file so she could keep an eye on him. He was going to need some shepherding over the years to overcome his problems. Now she was going to ream the ass of a certain drill Sargent for chastising and accusing him of cheating the first time he showed the courage and independence and ability to command men in a hopeless battle and win.  He could already have earned himself a commission as an officer instead of withdrawing back into his hole. The damage that Sargent had done in those few seconds was astounding. For the first time in her life she thought about having someone shot. Then thanked God she didn't have the power. But was going to make sure he could not do it again.

Jack returned to his barracks b
ut his new ship was not on the list as his training mates celebrated or lamented their new jobs, though everyone he talked to had new Battleships as their assigned ships. His buddy Tom was not too disappointed at not getting assigned to Fighter Pilot training as he was headed off to officer candidate school to become a 90 day Ensign as a Weapons Officer, before going to his new Battleship. Fact was, most of the trainees were headed off to become Ensigns.

Jack
had to wait until the next morning and almost lunch before he got his ship assignment as they were packing up. An assignment he was not happy with at all. The FMC-7 Red Dwarf, was definitely not a BB (Battleship). Or even a BC (Battle Cruiser) that he had heard talk of being built. A, BC was a battle ship without the heavy massive armor of a BB that could be built faster and because they would be lighter the BC had much higher acceleration or much longer range depending on how much reaction mass it carried. The type of ship the Navy was suddenly sorely needing the rumors said. Jack started speculating about what his new ship could be and the only thing Tom and him could come up with at first was Fast Mega Cruiser. Maybe a faster version of a Battle Cruiser or a huge Battle Cruiser like Tom had built in, The Game. “Now that would be stellar.” Both Tom and Jack talked about the Battle Cruiser for several minutes. Then it hit Jack. It had to be the Fast Mega Carrier able to carry a thousand fighters and torpedo bombers they had been hearing rumors about and he had seen in that one commercial. Jack could not wait as he tried to get his heart out of his mouth from the excitement as he was sure that was it.

The
Passenger Cruise ship Queen Marry skimmed only a couple thousand miles above the Black Star. After a week cruising well below light speed inside the nebula with no stars to be seen, the continent sized cold dark blocks floating in a star wide sea of bright molten metal forming rivers between them was quite a sight to see. Not that Black Stars were all that uncommon but most spacers had never gotten that close to one. So once the word had gotten out, the observation decks were quit busy. The star was little bigger than an average sized gas giant but all of its gasses, along with all its lighter metals, had been blown off long ago when it had gone Nova leaving only the core. All that was left was a virtual cornucopia of valuable dense heavy metals. More metals than in and around every human planet in the Republic or could use in a billion years. If you could get to them.

The
ship's Public Address system sprang to life. After a whistle announcing the Ship's Captain, he started speaking. "Your attention please. We will be arriving at the Rock in 3 hours. Eight hours ago I informed you that we were taking a short cut to knock a week from our trip. I also warned you that talking about what you were about to see to anyone once we docked, mentioning it in any form of mail or video including any diaries was grounds for a court-martial and execution. That included taking pictures of any kind.  We have already caught 5 people disobeying orders and taking pictures on film that is not traceable digitally as well as two trying to send letters home telling their families all about the fabulous sight."  The Captain paused a good half minute. "I am sorry to have to tell you that they have been found guilty and their sentences are about to be carried out. Three will be executed on the port side while 2 are executed on the starboard side. All hands will muster at their assigned viewing stations on the window decks immediately."

Ten minutes later Jack stood at easy starring down at the
brightly streaked Black Dwarf when the ship was called to attention. Then shortly after that, a flailing suit less body with a simple plastic bubble over her head came floating past the view port as her mouth continued to scream soundlessly and her arms and legs made swimming motions. A man followed a few seconds later.

A few minutes later the Captain came back on. "We could
not keep you from seeing what 99.9 percent of the rest of the Navy has never seen and never will. Even the most innocent comment or hint that, The Rock orbits a Black Dwarf in a cloud could lead to its discovery and the death of the Republic.  The Rock's secret location is what has kept our most vital ship yards, fleet base and even Earth safe from surprise attacks that have wiped out every previous main base in the republic and almost costing us several wars. Destroying our enemy’s ship production facilities and supply basses is how we have won most of our past wars with our neighbors.

Now with the Spider ships breathing down our necks
, it is even more important. If they are able to take out this base and production facility, the Republic is lost. I will say this one last time. The slightest reference to this cloud and anything in it at any time including in a bar in the middle of the base or a thousand light years away, in a diary or a letter home will get you immediately executed if an enforcer is present or it can be traced back to you. All recording devices, paper, digital or ancient film will be checked before you leave this ship and one innocent photo with the Black Dwarf in the back ground will get you convicted and all guilty parties will be executed. That is all. Ship’s company, dismissed." Jack turned around and a good sprinkling of people left the ranks, some running, toward their cabins. Smiling, Jack just stood there starring at the Black Dwarf, eventually moving closer to the view port. It was quite a sight and since he could not take pictures he wanted to remember every bit he could. Being a grav engineer, he started thinking of how to land on that incredible storehouse of new and unusual metals he had heard scientists had scanned on black dwarfs but never been able to get at.

The ship started pulling away from the star entering the dust cloud around it towered it's one and only orbiting planet.  It did not take long before the bright
molten metal faded into the cloud long before they reached the planet.

As the Queen Marry
approached the dark planet. Jack could see the side facing the star was covered in slag streaking around toward the backside. The star going nova had stripped the planets mantel and scared the core. As they climbed up around the moon sized planet Jack watched fissures open up across the back side facing away from the star. The fissures averaged about a mile wide by the looks of it and ran for a thousand miles forming a crisscross pattern. The fissures looked like they extended deep into the planet.  A result of the core melting on the side closest to the star as it went nova solidifying over a long period of time into one huge mass then cooling and shrinking over a million years. Pulling the thinner back side apart along fault cracks as it cooled. 

The Queen Marry
descended down into one of the crevices dropping for a hundred miles below the surface until it finally came out into a miles wide cavern along the floor. The fleet construction yard ran for a good 100 miles with new battle ships under construction running down each side wall of the crevice with partially completed hulls between them. Open tunnels going into the cavern walls could be seen around each ship with platforms hanging out of the wall at different levels for easy access to each deck of the ships.

Jack
looked for his new ship. There were some hundred new battle ships lining both sides of the station in various stages of outfitting. It was hard to tell their sizes just looking at them next to the crevice wall towering out of sight above the ship as they slowly descended until they got close enough for him to see the huge exoskeleton construction vehicles walking around them that he had mistaken as suited men at first. Finally realizing that the ships must be a couple thousand feet long with rings of six huge double barreled gun turrets spaced around most of the ship's upper end. Just like what he had seen in the recruiting office. Two rings of gun turrets spaced a hundred feet apart just above the engineering decks at the stern with cooling/landing fins. Four rings of turrets were spaced a hundred feet apart along the main personnel living and command decks at the bow.  The turrets staggered from ring to ring with the two most forward rings circling the narrowing sloped bow allowing for the bigger rings of turrets behind them to shoot forward over the tops of them. The thousand feet of hull between the two groups of turret rings was obviously tanks for reaction mass. The real Battleships looked better than the hologram in the recruiting office. Jack thought staring at them.

He
could read the big hull numbers on the sides of the ships and not one of them were even in the teens let alone with the single digit 7 on the side of any of them. The ones he could see were in the hundreds. Finally giving up he typed in the name of his new ship (FRM-7 Red Dwarf) into his sheet to find out which one was his. Holding the sheet up to look through it as he looked out the huge port he expected it to be highlighted. But nothing popped up on the screen around any of the ships lining the station even though the screen said. "Ship found at construction station." He increased the brightness of the highlight and still saw nothing. Finally he switched to a beacon and still nothing.

Was his ship just starting
construction? That was possible since it was obvious that the ships just starting constructed down the middle of the yard were not even whole shells yet.   Constructed from modules floating in from farther down the crevice. Maybe it was a new class of battleship just starting production. Jack thought to himself.

The
Queen Marry turned around to line up for landing in a large open area off the end of the production line where she could back up to a dock in the crevice wall allowing Jack to see back down away from the main Battleship production line. What Jack had thought of being tall buildings a few miles away when he first glanced at them as they descended down the crevice had one lit up with a beacon in his screen bright enough to hurt his eyes with. Similar buildings were under construction miles further down the crevice. Looking closely he realized that the building with the beacon had to be a huge miles long ship towering up the crevice since it looked like a ship and his screen told him it was a ship. But who and why would they build such a large ship with more being constructed farther down the crevice.

Each of t
he big ships seemed to be the length of a battleship wide or square and some miles long towering up into the crevice. He still could not punch up the specks of his ship as he started to hope that he had been assigned to one of the newest super carriers he had been hearing about with thousands of fighters and bombers even though the flat sides showed no signs of catapults or landing bay. Then the designation letters finally had words attached to them the fifth time he tried. Dashing his hopes, the FMC stood for Fast reaction Mass Cargo transport.

He was
not only assigned to a frigging water tanker but one that had to be the slowest barge in the damn fleet simply because of its size. His heart sank like a rock burning up in the atmosphere. He had at least been heartened that he would be in the thick of defending the Republic and his family's transport and now all he was, was a damn auxiliary transport that stayed as far away from the fighting as possible. And since when did a tanker need a gravity board anyway. No one cared if a mass tank got stirred up a little. Talking about a useless job. Probably only had a crew of a hundred if that and he would be lucky to have frozen dinners to reheat and eat every meal for months between stars. Typical military Supertanker fare. The last thing he wanted to be was a god damn boring grave tech again, but being assigned a stupid tanker just added insult to injury. Kicking himself for not even looking at the list the officer had tried to show him and requesting something, anything else. No. Maybe not anything. Definitely not Sewage reclamation Tech or Cook or...Or... Jack felt like crying again as his eyes clouded up. It just was not fair.