Rust Bucket (9 page)

***

Now that we were on our own, we got together and discussed what would shake up the enemy the most. The meeting was casual, maybe too casual for some of the regular Navy officers still on board. Regardless, it wasn't their show anymore, it was mine. I ran it the way I felt would include the most personnel into making the ship successful in its mission.

      The meeting wound up with a resounding resolution to carry the fight to the enemy's home as closely as possible. We knew where their home world was, so we plotted a straight course for it, determined to take them by surprise. It was my intention to make them release some of the pressure on the rest of the Navy by sending their best ships after us. We were going in against their strength, pure and simple. We weren't going to simply snipe around the edges. That would have been too little, too late. What our people in the other squadrons needed most was time. I meant to give it to them.

***

Along the way, Frank drilled the other pilots in his style of reckless piloting. At least, that's what they thought it was at first. After awhile, they slowly became converts to his methods as they gained more skill and confidence in their own ability. They also appreciated having the leeway to make maneuvering decisions for me since passing commands took time away from reactions that should be automatic in a fluid situation like ours. We didn't need that type of command structure and couldn't afford to use it. Had we been leading a squadron, then the structure would have been too important to toss out.

      Some of the gunners took up the idea of having their hammocks situated near their gun stations. It meant that they were only away from them to shower and eat along with a few other human needs. When they saw that I approved of their arrangements, more of the gunners followed them in adopting that idea. I wished that we had been given a few more gunners, but with almost all of them sleeping right at their stations, I felt more confident about the amount we had.

***

We got our first chance for action two days out from port when we ran into an enemy scout. We blew him apart before he could get a message off to any of his forces. That single engagement was more important than anything else for improving the confidence of the crew. I remembered to immediately give the entire crew a well done for their efforts and told them they did it right. I was more pleased that we surprised the scout and kept him from announcing our entrance.

***

Seriously, I expected to run into an enemy squadron before we reached the enemy's home planet. Instead, we discovered that our enemy was too weak to mount a sufficient defense of his home planet and an offense at the same time. They were obviously making do with what they had, much as I was. We went in boldly, having managed to cross several days worth of space without another encounter of enemy warships. Likely, they knew by then that something had happened to the scout manning one part of their line, so I didn't think that our return would be as uneventful when we finished up.

      We swept in towards the planet, taking out the satellites that surrounded the planet and disrupting their communications more than we knew at the time. Then we took up an orbit and began plotting targets for our heavier weapons. On our second orbit around the globe, we started firing at the targets, doing our best to take out only the targets of military interest or value. We left their civilian areas alone, seeking to destroy their capacity for war and not strengthen their will to fight on. Each time we circled their world, we managed to locate more military targets and destroy others while our long range sensors kept alert for returning enemy warships. We managed to circle their planet for over a day before the long range sweeps indicated an armed response to our presence and it was formidable. No fewer than ten warships responded to our intrusion and they were coming at us at full speed.

      "Break orbit and set course for Gamma Delta quadrant," I ordered, seeking to take the ten warships, if they chased us, farther away from our own regions of space. At least, it would be ten fewer warships facing our Navy. I hoped that it would make a difference.

      "One ship assuming orbit. The other nine are in pursuit," the sensor operator announced.

      I nodded and added, "Thanks. Let's keep them interested in us. This is ten fewer facing our Navy. Keep our speed matching theirs so that we maintain our distance. Keep me informed of their activity."

      Our ship sped off, remaining just out of maximum range of their weapons and our own effective range. Either of us could take a shot at the other, but the effects of a hit would be so negligible that I wasn't worried. At that range, they would barely be able to disturb the rust on our outer hull.

***

Two hours later, the sensor operator announced, "Two ships trying to take a slingshot speedup at us."

      "Thanks. Frank, what are our options on this?" I asked.

      Frank said, "We can do the same, but we'll lose the other seven in our dust."

      I ordered, "Okay, battle stations!" I was determined that we would fight the two ships trying to get within effective range. If we could damage or destroy them, then we'd probably discourage the others from trying to split up. We'd also cut down the odds against us to only seven to one instead of the current nine to one.

      A few minutes later, I was aware of sounds going through the ship as our guns leaped into action at extreme range to fight off the two incoming warships. We also felt the vibrations of a hit every so often despite the pilot's efforts to do some evasive action while maintaining our distance over the other ships. We could have pulled away from the two ships with our slightly better engines and greater speed, but I didn't want to lose the other seven enemy ships. I wanted to keep them all in pursuit and away from the Navy.

      About ten minutes into the shooting, there was an announcement from one of the gunners followed by a ragged cheer as one of the two enemy ships that slung itself closer to us took a direct hit that severely damaged it and put it out of action. If nothing else, we had just lowered the odds to eight to one. Only one enemy ship was still within range. It was now receiving our total firepower as the duel continued. About three or four minutes later, another cheer went through the ship as the other enemy ship was destroyed, rupturing completely in space. That was one ship that wouldn't see action for a long time. The repairs to put that back into operational use would be lengthy.

      "Damage assessment!" I ordered, now that the shooting was over and our personnel could move about freely through the sealed bulkheads to check everything.

      Slowly the damage estimates came back to me while I pondered how they might affect us. There was little damage done to us. Most of the damage was in the flight steering that we would need for going through an atmosphere. For the moment, that wasn't important. Worst came to worst, we could return, take an orbit around our home port, and let the Navy send a repair crew to make initial repairs in space before we tried to land. I noted the damage down in my log and checked on the situation of the seven alien ships that continued to dog us.

      At least, we didn't have any casualties among the fifty men and women who made up our crew. I felt that was good in and of itself. No casualties made the current situation much more tolerable.

***

We came to another location where the enemy could have used the slingshot effect of a planet's gravity to increase speed. None of the enemy ships tried to take advantage of it. For the time being, they were content to stay together. That bothered me. I figured that all seven would try to use it that time. Then we would have sped up to maintain distance. My best guess was that there would be other ships waiting somewhere ahead of us to catch us in a trap where they would have outrageous odds against us. Of course, the good thing about that was that it meant that the enemy had even fewer ships opposing our Navy directly.

      "Navigator, I want a course change to the Gamma Echo quadrant," I announced. "Execute when ready. Communications, let me know when the chase ships send out messages."

      The slight change I was asking for would barely be perceptible at first to our pursuers. I wondered how soon they would notice the change and try to notify a blocking force. An hour later, I got my answer.

      "Enemy ships communicating," the communications officer announced.

      I said, "Fine. Navigation, plot a course back to the Gamma Delta quadrant. Communications, let me know when the enemy communicates again."

      I had a plan that might work in that situation. If I could get the enemy to notice our course changes quicker, then we could continue to make those barely perceptible course changes. That would make both our pursuit and the blocking force wonder what was happening. If I was lucky, the blocking force would become confused at the constant changes about where they should be and start disbelieving the pursuers. Then, if I was real lucky, my ship would pick up the blocking force before they spotted us. We could then make a radical change in course to throw them into real confusion.

      The game continued for almost the entire day, with us making slight course changes back and forth between the two headings. The pursuers were getting better at picking up on our course changes as we got the interval of changes down to a half-hour. I couldn't have asked for a better position when we picked up the sensor readings of a blocking force of ten ships waiting for us far ahead. We were near a planet that was absolutely perfect for us to perform our own slingshot maneuver and Frank was at the pilot's controls.

      I ordered, "Frank, slingshot us back at our pursuit. Battle stations! Navigation, give Frank a course to take after the slingshot."

      Our ship dove at the nearby planet at the last possible moment. Then we rode the circular path around the planet, letting the planet's gravity toss us out in the opposite direction at a greater speed than what we could do otherwise on our own engines. Because we were far enough ahead of the enemy, they probably didn't know that we had detected their blocking force yet, since they only knew of its approximate position while our sensors had just given us its exact position. With luck, they might forget to notify the blocking force that we had changed course suddenly, especially as we were going at extreme speed towards them with every weapon on board blazing away at them. If they forgot to notify the blocking force, one of them might be even more unlucky and draw fire from their own ships in the blocking force.

      We caught them off guard, nonetheless. I suspect that their leader probably figured I would take my ship away from both forces instead of attacking my pursuers as I was doing. His ships' crews must have been in a relaxed state during the chase, as I hoped they would be. When we emerged from behind the planet coming back at them directly, only our own weapons were blazing. There wasn't a single weapon on the seven chase ships returning our fire. Then Frank moved us into a position where not all of them could return fire because of their formation. The first few weapons that could respond to us were limited to only those with a line of sight on us while the enemy's pilots tried desperately to limit by evasive maneuvers the damage we were inflicting on their ships. Their formation didn't allow them much discretion in movement without increasing the danger of collision among them. Because of that, most of our shots were hits, since we had a bigger overall target to aim at than the enemy had firing at us. I felt our ship vibrate once from a hit, but I was able to observe multiple hits from our weapons on the enemy ships before we sped past them. Then we performed a quick Tshot on their rears before they could react again as a formation.

      The T-shots did the most damage and destruction to the pursuit. Two of their ships were disabled when we hit their engines, leaving them helpless and unable to maneuver. Those two continued right on towards their own blocking force. At least one of them received fire from their own force that we could still monitor with our long range sensors. The other five were totally confused because one of the two must have been the flagship. Frank must have sensed it and looped back for another T-shot approach. Our gunners were able to destroy one more ship completely before the remaining enemy ships got coordinated and sped out of range quickly.

      As I saw their ships get out of range, I issued orders again. "Navigation, plot a course for their home planet. Time to visit them again. Damage reports!"

      It turned out that I hardly needed to issue the order for damage reports. Already, reports were coming in about the one hit we suffered. We had lost most, if not all, of our water supply. That meant we would have to get the water tanks repaired and refilled before we could engage in long term fighting again. I rechecked my personnel records and found what I thought I remembered. We still had a former member of the
Avenger
on board. "Gunner Thompson, what was the condition of the
Avenger
's water tanks?" I asked over the internal communications. My answer came almost immediately over the intercom.

      "They were still intact, sir."

      I ordered, "Navigation, change course to the
Avenger,
instead. I want full speed and I want to lose any pursuit. We'll find them later."

      I watched the long range sensors as Navigation and Steering went about their tasks of plotting the necessary course and losing our pursuers. Within six hours, we lost all pursuit.

The following day, we arrived at the planet where the
Avenger
had been set down. We landed near enough that we could almost spit out the hatch at the other ship and hit it. Immediately, repairs were made to the water tanks while some attention was given to the atmospheric steering. When the tanks were resealed, we put hoses between the two ships and pumped as much water as we could from the
Avenger
to the
Thurman.
It took almost four hours to accomplish those tasks. Then we sealed ourselves back up and jetted into space again. Because of our recent action, I saw no need for test firing or battle station drills.