Rust Bucket (12 page)

***

I woke up about seven hours later, still feeling tired, but otherwise ready to take on whatever challenges we faced. I went back onto the bridge. Before I could ask for the status, my First Officer was giving me a status report. "We've got one casualty. We lost a gunner and a Mark II single. Otherwise, no significant damage to report. We're still maintaining the same distance as before between us and the two remaining ships."

      "Okay. Has Communications broadcast that information about our damage?" I asked.

      She replied, "Uh, no sir."

      I said, "Okay, have them do so. We're going to be honest, but don't give the gunner's name out. I think this will have more effect than we might be able to see out here as far as the Navy is concerned. They ought to know that it's not a picnic and that we have sustained some damage. It'll also make us more believable to the enemy instead of them waiting for their own units to report that we told the truth. I want the enemy to believe us completely before we finish with them. It might make it possible for us to later pull the wool over their eyes in a clinch."

      She smiled as she instructed the Communications officer to go ahead and report our own damage in the clear. A moment later, the Communications officer was doing as she instructed. Around the bridge, there were lots of smiles, even though we were still being pursued by two enemy ships.

      Doubtless, the enemy must have been wondering what we were up to since we had attempted all sorts of tricks when there were nine times as many of them. Surely, they must think we had more damage than we were owning up to or we would have turned on our pursuers by then. Obviously, I wasn't going to announce to the enemy that I was taking a nap to freshen up or that I was waiting for a more opportune time and place to strike again. After all, I wasn't through with their ships.

      I ordered, "Navigator, locate a large planet suitable for a slingshot maneuver and pass the coordinates to the pilot. Rendall, when we get to the planet, don't do a slingshot. Take us around and bring us up under either of the two enemy ships. Navigator, let me know when you have a suitable planet for me to announce battle stations. I want to give the crew some more rest."

      "Yes sir," she said.

***

 About an hour later, the Navigator announced, "Suitable planet ahead. We'll be there in another hour, Captain."

      "Thanks. Battle stations!" I announced.

      About the ship, everyone stirred back to life, except for the few rear gunners who had continued to take long range shots at the closest enemy ship. For them, nothing was different, other than they knew it would soon be at close range. The hour it took for us to reach the planet seemed to take longer than the hour it took for us to find the planet.

***

Then it seemed that the planet appeared to fill the sky as we dove for it in what appeared to be a slingshot maneuver. The closest alien did his best to follow us in while trying to see where we were going to emerge from the slingshot. If he overshot or undershot our own course out, he'd lose us completely and be unable to do a thing about it. That was part of what I was banking on.

      As we circled the planet, our sensors kept operating to keep track of both the alien ships until one was blocked by the curvature of the planet. Only the closest one was still in sensor range and still at extreme gun range. Meanwhile, we had picked up some speed. Then the sensors picked up the second alien ship as it neared the planet and tried to see where we emerged, not knowing that we hadn't and were using the massive planet to hide ourselves. We streaked underneath him as our communications picked up a message from the other alien ship telling the one above us that we were underneath. His message was too late to do any good as our gunners picked off the second ship from below, leaving him totally disabled. Then our pilot pulled us out of the planet's gravitational field to pass in front of the disabled alien ship and off into space. The other alien was forced to follow in our footsteps exactly or risk crashing into the disabled ship. He wasn't able to make up any distance once we lengthened the distance between us because we hit the higher speed first.

      For the time being, we were completely out of weapons' range for him and us. Our gunners were all able to get some more rest while we led the one remaining ship on a chase as our communications sent out another message telling of another enemy ship destroyed. I had thought about reversing the engines to take him on suddenly in a surprise maneuver, but I wanted to try to find some more of the enemy ships. We had left too many of them behind us. There was no telling what lay in front of us. We had been in unexplored territory for several days by then. From the way the enemy was behaving, they didn't know the territory any better. Besides, the ship behind us was matching us maneuver for maneuver too well to be handled by an inexperienced captain and crew. I imagined that they were probably thinking of some of the same things I was.

      "Navigation! How long would it take for us to reach their home planet again from here?" I asked.

     It took a few moments for Navigation to come up with the answer. "Two days."

      I said, "Plot a course to a suitable planet where we can do another slingshot to their home world. We're going on the offensive again. I want to really embarrass that guy in back of us."

      There were smiles on the faces of everyone around the bridge as they glanced back to see what I was doing or thinking of, even though I had just spoken my mind. All I could do was return their smiles with one of my own.

***

Three hours later, we executed another slingshot maneuver. Shortly after we came out of it on course for the alien home world, the ship behind us started broadcasting to everyone of our intentions. I smiled as I sensed the welcoming party that would await us.

      I said, "Communications, send the following coded message to Headquarters. Now is the time to strike the enemy home world. End message."

      The looks on most of their faces changed as they tried to comprehend what I was up to. I went ahead and answered their stares. I explained, "If the enemy has broken our code, then they won't start pulling back to their planet to keep us away. They'll do their best to stop any attacks away from their world and we'll get a message that our folks can't put together a strike. If our people say they're on the way, then we'll know that the code is still secure and we're headed into a meat grinder. We'll turn aside just before it's too late. We might be brave, but we're not stupid. I want to know why they've thrown so many ships at us and our people couldn't put together an ambush before."

***

 We continued on for several hours before the coded reply came to us. Headquarters was still saying that they couldn't do it because of the border situation.

      I said, "Communications, send the following in the clear. Code broken. Enemy is reading messages. End message."

      Jean asked, "Are we still going in to attack?"

      I replied, "Why not? They're keeping their ships at the border. Most of them, anyway. What's eighteen or twenty ships to us?"

      There was some restrained laughter as my poor attempt at humor.

      Then I said, "I want this to be like a drive-by shooting on old Earth a long time ago. I want us to be going by so fast that we're nothing less than a blur and so close that they think we're going to hit them. Then I want to break back to our side and pick up the new codes. I think we deserve a few days off in port. Besides, the combat videos might prove useful to our people."

      Suddenly, there were lots of smiles again on the faces of my bridge personnel.

***

Almost a day and a half later, we successfully managed to do another slingshot and pick up just a little more speed than before. We buzzed by the alien home world and shot off every gun we had at anything we could see. About the same time, the alien ships defending the planet tried to shoot at us. At least one of their shots went at their own planet, doubtless causing problems for one of their officers later. Our own shots were directed at the alien ships since there really wasn't enough time to place shots against the planet itself and restrict the destruction to military installations. I was unable to see us or them score any hits on the other. At any rate, I know they missed us, just barely.

      We swept by their planet with one ship still in pursuit of us. I'm sure, the captain of that ship must have been wondering what we were going to pull next. I'm sure he expected us to pull something. After all, we had attacked his home planet or the forces around it four times by then.

***

Our ship managed to come up fast behind one of the alien squadrons patrolling the border area where most of the fighting was occurring. They barely had any warning from the pursuing ship. Our guns were already firing at the tails of the squadron and scoring hits before we caught up and flashed by them quicker than they could respond to our sudden attack. Then we were no longer separated from our port by enemy ships. The pursuit dropped off once the enemy ship's captain realized that we could now call in reinforcements.

The combat videos revealed that we also took out one of the ships in the border squadrons as we broke out of enemy territory. Our score was one casualty for nineteen enemy vessels and a host of ground installations. I thought that we would be in port for two days at most, but the engineers who repaired our ship insisted on doing it carefully. We spent a week on the ground while most of the other battle reports continued to be much the same as before.

      Not long after our combat videos were viewed, the whole crew was summoned to Headquarters and received decorations for their action against the enemy. For my own part, I was also promoted to Lieutenant Commander. It was still a temporary commission, but I was finally achieving parity with the members of my own academy class in rank. I had certainly surpassed them in achievements.

***

I thought that the repairs were taking too long and went to investigate after five days of waiting. I discovered that the Navy was replacing our Mark III duals with Mark III quads to increase our firepower to the rear. That was a welcomed discovery for me. Had the
Thurman
been a little larger, we might have been given some Mark IV quads. They were new and longer ranged than the Mark III's and would have been a very welcome addition to the ship.

      As well, our ship was very distinctive because of its half rust and half shiny exterior, courtesy of our stay inside the asteroid field. All that dust hitting the ship had scoured the rust off one side so that the ship appeared to be of two colors. I went back to Headquarters and suggested that some of the other ships our size ought to be painted to look like us just to confuse the enemy as to where we were, considering how badly we hurt the enemy. That was when I got the news I considered to be bad news. The next time I went out, I would be part of a squadron. I felt devastated almost at once when I heard that. That was the rest of the reason for us not being sent out sooner.

      About the only thing good from the whole deal was that I was still the Captain of the
Thurman.
I still had the same crew, minus some of the extra gunners I took along before. The rest of the mission was doomed to disaster from the moment it was conceived by the moron who suggested it. How anyone thought that three ships could move into enemy territory and repeat what we did was irresponsible to me in its organization. What someone thought would happen was that three ships would do three times as much damage and destruction. Evidently they hadn't learned from our reports how we actually performed our mission. We didn't have to coordinate group movements while the enemy did. Now we were voluntarily tying one hand behind our back and trying to do the same thing. I knew right off that it couldn't be done in the same way. I also expected my ship to get most of the attention because of our two-tone coloration.

      I went about briefing my officers and crew, telling them that we couldn't start blazing away at targets until we got the go ahead from the squadron commander. I didn't tell them of my other plans. Those could be considered insubordination or desertion, though I wasn't going to be running away from a fight. My only thoughts were to get my ship in the open where we could fight the way we knew how to fight best, with the best chance of both survival and success. I figured as long as they didn't know ahead of time, I could give them that chance.

***

We lifted off on the eighth day after our arrival and assumed the left wing of our three-ship squadron. As before, there was no practice by the squadron of battle stations or testing of the weapons. Aboard my ship, I had my crew do dry runs to battle stations without firing. At least, I did that much to help my crew.

      The squadron commander, Captain Jingle, couldn't have been more aptly named. Everywhere we went, we jingled, so to speak. The fool couldn't stop using the communications to keep the squadron in tight with each other, instead of keeping our presence hidden. We were met at the border by an enemy squadron of ten ships. I evaluated the situation, ordered my pilot to charge full speed ahead, and gave battle stations as we cleared the rest of our squadron. Almost immediately, Captain Jingle was on the communications channel expressing his anger and outrage at my insubordination, ordering me to return to formation.

      "Cut the communications off. I don't want to hear him blather anymore. Anyone disagree?" I asked as I looked around at my bridge personnel.

      No one made a comment, but there were a few smiles while the vibrations from our own weapons were being felt throughout the ship as the pilot performed evasive maneuvers to keep us from being hit. Somehow we managed to punch through the enemy squadron taking out one of them as we passed by. Then we swept in on their rear to T-shoot several more of them. Meanwhile, I looked at the sensor array and saw what was happening to the other two ships of the squadron. They were holding their precious formation and trying to maneuver as a team while just about getting their collective asses shot off. Worse yet, they were only being attacked by two of the original ten enemy warships. The rest of them were in pursuit of us as I expected they would be.