Warpath (41 page)

Jake could see where
crews were running basic tests on systems across the ship, and yellow
dots marked where systems still had to be installed. There were
dozens of dots throughout the main section of the vessel, and even
more inside the new hangars under the left and right wings of the
ship.

He was thankful that
the ship didn’t have rail guns when they faced it before, it could
have changed the shape of their encounter entirely. Rail guns were
bad enough, but the version he had installed used high explosive
shells that spread the damage of the impact out significantly. Two
hits from such a weapon would have slagged the Warlord.

He was just starting to
bring up the status tracking displays in front of the captain’s
seat, a holographic scroll that he knew he’d be staring at for so
long that he’d see it in his sleep, when Liara gently broke through
his concentration. “Now that we’re under way and nothing’s
fallen off, maybe you could do a ship wide?” she asked.

“That’s a good
idea, thank you,” Jake replied. “Engineering, are we ship shape?”
he asked.

“Aye, aye, Sir,”
Finn replied.

“Any problems coming
up?” he asked the bridge in general, catching Frost’s eye. The
man looked a little out of place in a fitted tactical uniform, but
happier than Jake had seen him in years. All the stations from his
right hand around to his left and behind all checked in green on his
display. They were safely under way.

“Well, then, ship
wide announcement, please,” Jake said.

“Your attention,
please, for an announcement from the Captain of the Revenge,” Liara
said. She turned and nodded to him.

Jake didn’t have
anything pre-planned, so he started his statement the way he was
trained to in the Freeground Fleet so long before. “We have begun
our first mission. The Revenge is currently in wormhole transit to
our first waypoint. All critical systems are green. I am proud of
every single one of you for pulling together as a crew and getting us
into space. I am confident that our first mission will be remembered
as one of the greatest efforts in what will be the long service of
this ship. We will see combat, but not for several days at least, so
get squared away, get used to your duties, and stand ready. I
encourage all of you to take a moment when your duty shift ends today
to record a message for someone at Haven Shore or somewhere within
the reach of their communications system. All operational data will
be deleted, so don’t talk about the state of the ship or our
mission, or the message your loved one gets will be pretty short. It
may be the last time you can send a message home for a long time.
This is a great crew, look out for each other, follow the
regulations, the directions of your superiors and you’ll learn more
than you can imagine. I am already proud to be serving with you.”

There were few
personnel lifts on the Revenge, and the computer aboard restricted
most crewmembers from taking them unless it was an emergency or they
were late for a duty shift.

This suited Jacob
Valent fine. As the Captain, he could take the lifts whenever he
liked, but he hadn’t tried one yet. The ship also had a set of bulk
movers that carried heavy cargo along the first, fifth, twenty
eighth, twenty third and fourteenth decks horizontally, and up and
down between all decks. They ran along the broad service hallways
that were core to the ship’s maintenance.

Jake decided to take
his first jog on deck twenty-eight, where the Solar Forge had created
quite a surprise for everyone aboard. The track for the bulk movers,
square flat bed cars that were several metres across, was opaque, but
the decks around them could be mostly transparent with the touch of a
button.

The simple artificial
intelligence saw fit to show him as soon as he arrived. His original
reason for being there was that it was the only broad hallway that
ran the full length of the ship, all three hundred thirty three
metres, minus the hull thickness. It was perfect for he and Minh-Chu
to have a jog on.

“Now that’s
something,” Minh-Chu said as he looked through the smoky
transparent metal floor running alongside the bulk mover track. “I
can see my fighter from here.” The whole main hangar bay was
visible below. Jake and Minh-Chu could see that crews were already on
shift, getting the ships into position so their only working fighter
bay would be ready for use later that day.

“It’ll take another
week for the secondary bays to be ready, right now they’re storage
for the rest of the fighter wing,” Jake said. “Ready to go, old
man?”

“Look who’s
talking,” Minh-Chu said, breaking into a brisk jog. “If
experience were age, you’d be twice as old.”

Jake had no problem
keeping up with him once he got moving, it was starting the run that
he was uneasy with. His balance was still not as keen as he would
have liked. The extra muscle he’d been given during the six weeks
he’d spent in stasis served him well, and he had good endurance,
but he needed to keep walking and running as much as he could. They
settled in at a good pace, running side by side, and Jake started to
realize how long the main access hall was. It was twice as tall as
any other floor, and had room on the sides for storage beside the
walkways. That space was filled with components that had to be
installed on the ship, and supplies that hadn’t been moved to the
right place due to time constraints. “So, did you check the report
for the night shift?” Jake asked.

“Yes, Agameg ended up
balancing the power distribution for the ship while he was in the
Captain’s chair. That one is a serious over achiever.”

“Tell me about it, he
got us down to using less than one percent of our output while we’re
under power in a wormhole. I knew the fusion generators on this ship
were good, but I would have never imagined they were that good.”

“Yeah, I meant to ask
you about something,” Minh-Chu said. “There’s no antimatter
aboard anywhere, did the Warlord spook you off the stuff?”

“That’s part of
it,” Jake replied. “But antimatter also comes up on scans a lot
faster than anything else, and we don’t have any real cloaking
systems right now.”

“That makes sense,”
Minh-Chu said. “So the torpedoes you’re going to be using, if
they’re not antimatter, what are they?”

“Guided drillers,
with high explosives. Only useful once a ship’s shields are down,
and they take a little while to punch through the hull, but they make
a big mess when they do.”

“Nasty,” Minh-Chu
said. “So, do you think there’s going to be a large need for
fighters in the nebula?”

“Bigger than ever.
Our sensors are going to have limited range in dense areas, so we’re
going to need to extend them using your fighters. That, and we’re
going to be up against the real Order of Eden Fleet in there. If
they’re after Freeground, there’s going to be a lot of them. The
new gunships can do a lot of damage if they take something by
surprise, especially if they’re each flanked by two Uriels. Mainly,
though, we need your Fighter Wing because the Revenge is not a close
combat carrier. She may have the armour, but her weapons are made for
long range, so your fighter wing will be the first line of defence.”

“We have a lot of
green pilots. I don’t know of I’d trust those nuggets to keep the
enemy where you want them,” Minh-Chu said. They passed a group of
five Crewmen in white and blue vacsuits. Each of them were low
ranking Enlisted, Grade three or below, the morning duty shift was
just starting.

Jake replied once they
were past them. “That’s why we’re going to have to rough it for
the first while, take the Revenge closer than I’d like if your
fighter screen doesn’t work out.”

“It’ll work out,”
Minh-Chu said. “As long as I’m out there flying with the right
wingmen. The gunships are going to make a real difference too,
they’ve got good survivability, are about as heavily armed as the
average corvette class warship. With the right loadouts, and good
pilots, they will be kings of the strike and fade attack.”

“Exactly. The Revenge
will be a great big fat target though, so your fighter squadron won’t
get all the attention. The Clever Dream will play the role of scout,
cloaked.”

“What about the
Triton?” Minh-Chu asked.

“They’ll be thirty
thousand klicks or more above or below,” Jake replied.

“The Revenge will be
the bait,” Minh-Chu said.

“Our shields are good
for it, and the Triton will hit them from out of nowhere,” Jake
replied. “The problem is, you have to find a place to fit in with
your fighters.”

“Nah, we’ll run
patrols, try to catch anything hiding on the outskirts of your sensor
range. It’ll work out, you’ll see. Just get all my fighter bays
working,” Minh-Chu said.

“Yes, Sir, Wing
Commander, Sir,” Jake replied. He wasn’t winded at all, so he
followed the automated medical advisor’s advice and turned the
resistance of his suit up five percent. With all his muscles working
against the suit, he immediately felt like he was starting to get
real exercise.

“You know, the
Rangers jog and do obstacles practically nude,” Minh-Chu said.

“Yup, I’ve seen,”
Jake said. “I’m a space combatant, everyone on this ship is. We
should be used to wearing vacsuits at all times.”

“Old Freeground Fleet
doctrine,” Minh-Chu said. “I agree, but I have to admit, the
Ranger outfits are something else. Have you seen the Ranger ladies
jogging around Haven Shore?”

“My daughter’s a
Ranger,” Jake replied, more to put Minh-Chu on the spot than to
object to his statement.

“They look very
athletic, warrior like, even,” Minh-Chu said, backpedalling with a
chuckle.

Jake nearly lost his
balance for a moment, but recovered and kept running.

“You all right?”
Minh-Chu asked.

“I turned the
resistance of my suit up, just learning to fight through it,” he
replied. “So, how many people on your crew broke regulations last
night?”

“Nine,” Minh-Chu
said. “Only two were pilots, and they were both fraternization rule
violations. The rest were either out of bounds, or late for duty.”

“Lucky,” Jake said.
“There were a hundred five violations made by the rest of the crew.
Six were officers, one was a senior officer.”

“What? That’s a
really high number, right?”

“For the first night
in the military after taking people in only based on their records
and their qualification testing? No, that’s less than ten percent
of the crew,” Jake replied. “I was expecting about three
hundred.”

“Seriously?”
Minh-Chu said. “So what are you going to do?”

“Well, I’m going to
talk to Stephanie, but I bet we’ll end up doing similar punishments
across the board. Anyone who broke violence or substance abuse
regulations will see me in Captain’s Mast.”

“How many will you be
seeing?” Minh-Chu asked.

“Nineteen enlisted,
two Officers. One is Frost, so that’ll take ten seconds,” Jake
said.

“Whatever punishment
you dole out for him will be nothing compared to what Stephanie does
to him,” Minh-Chu said. “I know it’s confidential but-“

“Rum,” Jake said.
“Crewcast recorded him giving a cup of Black Sail rum out to his
senior gunnery team. I doubt Stephanie will give him a hard time,
she’ll have some fun at his expense though.”

Minh-Chu laughed, “But
you’ve gotta set an example, right?”

“A light one for
that, but he’s getting restriction for a week, then it’s his
responsibility to punish his people.”

“Oh, that’s going
to suck,” Minh-Chu said. “I’ll watch what you do to punish your
people before I punish mine. There’s a guide in the regulations,
but I’m thinking I’ll go light this time.”

“Just a warning and a
little restriction to duty?” Jake said.

“Exactly, except for
the one who started a fight. Sticky got into it with an Engineer’s
Mate and broke his nose,” Minh-Chu said. “You’ll hear about it,
the engineer is on your list.”

“What Sticky
getting?” Jake asked.

“No flight
priviledges for three days, she gets to be my sensor intercept
officer instead, and extra watch for five,” Minh-Chu said. “Can’t
start fights across departments or across ranks.”

“Or at all,” Jake
said.

“That too,”
Minh-Chu said. “Speaking of, have you thought of trying martial
arts training? Great balance and discipline.”

“I was programmed
with some as a framework,” Jake said, “And Doctor Messana made
sure there was a good basis for martial arts in the muscle memory
work she did on me. I should try. Are you offering?”

“I’m not your guy,”
Minh-Chu said. “All I have is the old Freeground training, and I’m
rusty.”

“That was good
training,” Jake said. “Served me well so far. Why don’t we
start something every third morning?”

“All right, but just
you and I at first, we’ll have to get a good grip on it before we
start getting other people into it. We also need someone for more
involved martial arts, you know, to keep things interesting.”

“Stephanie,” Jake
said. “We need Stephanie in on this. She can throw people three
times her size around, has a gymnastics background and they trained
in cross discipline martial arts when she went through her military
training.”

“I am not surprised,”
Minh-Chu said. “Let’s take a break. I’m in shape, but obviously
not your kind of shape, we’ve been pinning it and you’re barely
winded.”

Jake felt a little
sweat on his brow, but had to admit that he was finding the morning
jog fairly easy, even with his suit fighting his every movement. They
sat down on a pair of crates along the side of the hall. There were
over a hundred crewmembers within sight, starting their morning,
loading equipment, parts and supplies onto carts. “Sorry, Minh,”
Jake said. “I’m only as good as they made me.”