Wings of Steele- The Series, page 30
part #1 of Wings of Steele Series
Jack swallowed dryly. "I need a drink," he croaked. Alité handed him a glass of sparkling juice almost before he finished his thought.
"She'll be alright," soothed Alité, "you'll see..." She ran her fingers through his hair and massaged his aching temples.
“This is not the way I wanted it to go,” sighed Jack.
“How did you want it to go?”
Steele waved his hand in a circle, “You know how it went just now?”
“Yes...”
“Better than that.”
CHAPTER TWENTY
FREEDOM: HISTORIC LAUNCH, DEGOBAH SYSTEM
By mid-morning, all that had to be done – all that could be done, had been completed, checked and rechecked; history could not be postponed any longer. The very first ship ever to be captured intact, such as it was, from the pirates, was ready to be relaunched under a flag allied to the UFW.
Four more people had joined the Freedom's crew that morning; two were former passengers, two were former crew members of the Princess Hedonist. This brought the Freedom's total crew complement to seventy-one. Still well below the standard crew of one-fifty to two-hundred, but as Jack Steele would say; Every little bit helps.
The entire crew of the raider-class cruiser, Freedom, stood in single file review outside the port loading ramp. The officers wore the royal blue, double breasted, cavalry style shirts, formfitting, charcoal gray pants, and the polished black, knee high boots. Non officers wore light gray, double breasted cavalry shirts, and the same charcoal pants and black boots. Rank was noted on the collar for officers and on the shirt cuff for non-coms, but only six people wore the coveted pilot's wings on their left breast.
Their brass buttons glittering in the lights of the Princess's landing bay, the small crew was still a dramatic sight. Gantarro, accompanied by Jack, strolled down the line and said goodbye to the former members of his crew he knew as friends and bid the entire group God's speed and protection. As they returned to the beginning of the line, the Captain of the Princess grew more solemn, paused in front of the pilots and faced Jack. His full, trimmed, white beard and sapphire blue eyes made him look a little like Father Christmas. "Captain Steele," he began, "it has come to my attention, that you have no medical staff on your crew. If something happens out there, you'd be in big trouble... any medical assistance, could be days too late. Can't have that. It's not at all acceptable. So..." he continued, grinning, "I'm providing you with both, a medi-bot and a surgically trained CABL."
"Can you do that?"
"I just have, Mr. Steele. And may you never need them." Gant extended his hand.
"Thank you," said Jack, shaking his hand, "you've been a good friend. I hope we'll see you again."
Gantarro smiled politely, "I'm sure we will. Take care, my boy."
Jack stepped aside and his new first officer Professor Edgars, stepped forward, followed by Fritz and the five pilots. They exchanged smiles, handshakes and goodbyes. Jack turned to Ragnarr, "Lieutenant..."
“Yes, sir?"
"Let's round em up and head em out!"
The burly Lieutenant cocked his head. "Sir?"
Steele cracked a crooked smile, "Get the crew aboard and prepare to depart...?"
"Oh yes," the big man nodded, "aye, sir." He turned to the crew and waved them up the ramp. The assigned medi-bot and the specially trained, CABL M7, followed the crew up into the cruiser.
The Professor and pilots, having exhausted their goodbyes, turned and started up the ramp, leaving Jack and Fritz at the foot of the ramp facing Gantarro, who stood on the pad. The old man smiled, and then snapped a sharp salute. Jack stiffened and returned it crisply. When he turned on his heel, he proceeded up the ramp without looking back. Things seemed to have come full circle, and Steele pondered how odd, that every time he departed, someone was saluting him. He hoped the Freedom's maiden flight would be more successful than the Sweet Suzie's.
The Shepherd ran ahead and was at the elevator before Jack reached the entrance to the cargo hold. A technician who doubled as a Gunnery Officer, stood in the hold at the top of the ramp, waiting for his Captain to board. "Thanks, Mister," said Jack, as he passed. "Close her up." The Warrant Officer nodded as he worked the controls to retract the heavy ramp back into the hull. Hydraulic pumps thrummed as the ramp hinged upward to fold itself flush with the hull and seal the cargo opening. Jack glanced back when he heard the hiss of the hydraulics and the squeal of metal on metal, which were the locking rams securing the door. The crewman gave him a thumbs up signal to show the door and hull were sealed tight. Satisfied, Jack gave a wave and stepped into the waiting elevator.
■ ■ ■
It was good to see crew members in the corridors, it made the ship feel alive and vital. Fritz was having to trot to keep up with Jack's long strides, but once he discovered their destiny was the bridge, he galloped off down the hall, happily weaving his way past corridor traffic. It was becoming obvious, the Shepherd was almost back to his full physical abilities already, though some of his personality traits were still absent. All in good time, thought Jack.
With the work stations fully manned, the bridge appeared to have undergone a substantial metamorphosis. Used to the quiet, it was almost startling when Jack stepped onto the bridge, but it felt like home just the same. As he walked across the upper level, past the science, communication and sensor stations, Raulya handed him a comm unit. Slightly different than the comms on the Princess, he paused and slid the miniature unit over his left ear and adjusted the wire-boom mic near his mouth. Moving down the steps to the command chair, he shooed Fritz from the seat. "OK, boys and girls, here we go!" He dropped into the command chair and scanned the readouts on his monitors. "Communications, give me an open channel..."
"You have it, sir."
"Thank you." He looked up to the main view screen which showed the flight bay around them, "Hello tower, this is the Freedom, we're ready to shove off."
“Copy, Freedom. Bay doors are open, personnel are clear, flight path is clear... you are free to execute."
"Thank you, tower." Jack sat back in his chair and crossed his legs to feel more comfortable and conceal his anxiousness. He punched a button on his console which would route his communications to engineering. "Are you ready Trigoss?"
"Ready, Captain."
"OK, Chief," continued Jack, "we need power for the antigravity system."
"Gotcha. Rerouting power from the main engine cores, to antigravity... now." The lights on the bridge dimmed momentarily.
"Helmsman," ordered Jack, "take us off the deck."
"Yes, sir." The ship began to vibrate as the Ensign applied power and the ship became weightless, lifting off the deck, "Up and holding, sir." The vibration lessened.
"Good. Lieutenant, retract the landing legs."
Ragnaar nodded, reaching across his console, "Yes sir." The heavy thrum of massive hydraulic pumps drummed from the belly of the ship as they worked to retract the legs designed to support the Freedom's extensive weight. One by one the legs thumped home and locked into place. "Gear up and secure, sir."
"Alright," Steele rubbed his hands together, "now we're cooking. Lieutenant, Ensign, it's up to you, take us out of here."
"Aye, sir," they answered in near unison.
"Try not to scratch the paint job..."
Ragnaar turned from his console, forward of the command chair and looked at Jack over his shoulder. "Not a chance, Captain," he replied with a smile. Steele returned the smile with a knowing nod.
Sitting in his own chair, to the left of Jack's, the Professor eyed his own monitors for trouble. Jack slid out of his position and stood up. Fritz, who had been lying peacefully between them, rose with his human. "Listen, Walt..." It felt strange calling him by his first name but the Professor didn't seem to mind, "I'll be right back, keep an eye on things, OK?"
"Right-o." The Professor didn't look up from his monitors.
Followed by Fritz, Steele moved up the short stairs that ringed the control pit and over to where the pilots stood with Raulya and Myomerr at the weapons console, behind the command chairs. They stood, momentarily silent and watched the landing bay slide slowly backwards on the main screen.
"Pretty freaking amazing," whispered Mike. The others nodded in silent agreement, mesmerized by the scene on the big screen.
Jack broke his attention away from the view screen. "Where's Maria?"
"In her quarters," answered Derrik.
Steele nodded. "Maybe that's for the best right now." The others agreed, knowing what had transpired and her present attitude. "I'm going to call downstairs and have them ready the fighters," continued Jack, "I need you guys to launch as soon as we're clear of the Princess."
"What's up?" queried Brian.
"Nothing yet," said Jack peering at the weapons console, "it's just that we're kinda' vulnerable and I think fighter recons are a good idea. I don't want to get caught with our pants down."
"Good idea," confirmed Paul.
"Thanks, Pappy." Steele checked the big screen then turned back, "Mike, you fly with Pappy. Bri, you fly Derrik's wing. Pappy, you're flight leader, so pick whatever sweep pattern you think is best."
"No problem, Jack." Paul motioned to the others, "Let's go get suited and prepped." The pilots filed out of the bridge and Steele really wanted to be going with them; he wanted to fly something other than a shuttle so bad he could taste it.
But Steele returned to the command chair where he knew he needed to be until the Professor was more familiar with operations. Or they came up with a fifth fighter, whichever came first. He plopped himself into the contoured, well padded chair and after a quick glance at the big screen to check their progress, he punched a button on his console, connecting him with the flight bay. "Flight bay..."
"Flight bay, go ahead," came the answer over his comm.
"This is the bridge, arm and prep all fighters for launch." The flight crew acknowledged his order and the computer beeped as the commlink ended. Rotating his chair around, its console and monitors turning with it, he looked at Raulya at the weapons console behind him. "How long will the ship's weapons hold a power charge if they don't fire?"
She glanced down at the console, then back up. "Most will hold a charge in their storage cells for twenty-four to forty-eight hours."
Steele nodded and pulled on his lower lip, deep in thought. Without turning or looking, he addressed his first officer, "Walt, do we have any extra power at all to divert to something else?"
"A little," he answered, checking the status of the generators on his monitor.
"Good..." Steele turned back towards his weapons officer, "Raulya, can you route power to a couple turrets at a time? Charge them up and move on to the next one?"
She was staring down at her console and calling up the arming and powering information. Whole columns of directions outlined the specific sequences. "I'd have to change the prescribed format a bit, but I think I can."
Steele rubbed his hands together. "Good. Do it."
Raulya nodded and began working on the program's format, rearranging it to make it more flexible and allow her the freedom to manipulate the power to individual gun turrets. She paused, "The guns need to be manned..."
"No problem." Jack punched the general-comm button on his chair's console. "All gunnery personnel to your stations. This is just a drill, repeat, this is just a drill. Report when at station." His keypad chirped as he ended the broadcast. When he spun his chair back forward, the view screen showed the Freedom was almost halfway clear of the Princess's bay.
One by one, manned and ready, gunnery teams began reporting in to Raulya. Once all the turret crews had reported in and she had successfully changed the arming and charging program, she addressed all the gunnery personnel at one time, instructing them on the charging protocol. And was careful to make it clear that at no time should they actually arm the weapons in their turrets. Although probably disappointed, all personnel complied and the process proceeded smoothly, though a bit slow.
Unable to start the main engines in the confines of the landing bay, Jack grew concerned about the engine cores cooling before the withdrawal of the Freedom was complete, necessitating more warm up time. He keyed the proper comm button. "Engineering, this is the bridge, how are our core temps holding out?"
"Stand by..." Jack recognized the Chief Engineer's voice and waited through a long pause. "Sorry sir, I was a bit busy."
"Do we have a problem, Chief?"
"No sir, just some adjustments. Our core temperatures are fine, they'll hold for a couple of hours before requiring any additional heat."
"Thanks, Chief. Just checking." Jack sat back in his chair, crossed his legs and relaxed, satisfied that there wasn't much else to do but watch and wait.
■ ■ ■
Paul, Mike, Brian and Derrik, stood in the locker room and donned the flight suits which would protect them in space if ejection from the cockpit became necessary. In appearance, the suit resembled a standard G suit, but that's where the similarity ended. These special survival suits would provide a complete sealed environment with heat and oxygen when the helmet was locked and the suit remained attached to the ejection seat with umbilical cords. The pilot would have several hours of life support in deep space.
The pilots finished putting on their suits and moved through the double doors into the briefing room, carrying their helmets and flight gloves. They sat in the front four seats, glancing around at the twenty empty seats around them. "I say," said Derrik, "it's a mite lonely in here."
Paul shrugged, "Maybe some day it won't be so deserted." He sat in the chair the briefing officer would use, which had a small console and keypad that controlled the flight planning wall chart. Using the keypad, he lowered the lights and called up the chart of the present sector. "We are here." Two ship icons representing the Princess and the Freedom appeared in the center of the chart, prompted by Paul and placed by the computer. "We'll fly in a standard finger four, Derrik and I in front, Brian and Mike as respective wing men." A four craft flight formed ahead of the icons for the larger ships and a red line raced forward, away from the ships. At its furthest point, the two flight groups would split, Paul's winging left, Derrik's winging right. The flight plan formed a diamond, the points facing outwards at the bow, stern, port and starboard.
After momentarily rejoining at the stern point, the groups would split again to create another diamond with points facing out, above, below and again bow and stern, where theoretically if the recons found nothing, they would rejoin and approach the stern of the Freedom for recovery. This, Paul aptly named the Double Diamond Sweep and would become a standard recon used on the Freedom. "Any questions?" asked Paul. There were none. "OK, let's head on out and see how they're coming with those birds." The pilots gathered their gloves and helmets and walked through the blast doors out into the flight bay. Two of the Warthog fighters were completely armed and sitting in the two launch bays with their canopies standing open. The other two were still being armed, but were almost completed. The pilots stood and watched the armorers load the last of the missiles.
The launch assistant, a former pirate, strolled over to greet the pilots, "Any of you gents ready to go?"
"Are we clear yet?" asked Paul.
"Let me check," said the assistant. He keyed the mic on his headset. "Do we have clear launch yet, boss?" He scrunched his face as he listened to the answer on his comm unit. "Not yet," he told the pilot, "but soon."
"We'll wait then," said Paul. The launch assistant nodded and headed back to his station.
■ ■ ■
Able to call up almost any of the ship's systems on his monitors, Professor Edgars was getting an indoctrination of trial by fire. Trying to learn all the different systems while they were live and in operation, was stressful and potentially dangerous because his chair's console allowed him access to any one of those systems. But the Professor resisted his professional curiosity and dismissed the urge to experiment. Instead, he concentrated on monitoring the systems he knew best, with only occasional glances at the rest.
Jack knew there was probably something constructive he should be doing, but he had slipped into a daydream. It was about the warm Florida sun, fine white sand, and the feel of the salty surf. Images of his home on the beach, friends, family, a welcome home barbecue... "When are you going to find a nice girl and settle down?" his mother would say. "I would like to see some grandchildren..." She rarely forgot to mention it and sometimes she made it sound like, all it took, was going to the department store to pick them out. "Maybe you're being too picky," she would add. Darn right, thought Jack, don't want to end up with a lemon, he'd done that once. One divorce was enough... for any man. He decided no man should be required to give away all his worldly possessions more than once, in any given lifetime. Starting over from square one was more than enough for this guy.
"Captain!" Ragnaar's voice snapped him back, "We are clear of the Princess, sir." There was a short round of applause from the bridge staff.
Steele looked up to see the stern of the ship ahead, as the Freedom coasted slowly backwards. He watched as the bay doors began to close. "Thank you, Lieutenant. You and the Ensign did a fine job. Maneuver us on thrust engines, bring us abeam of the Princess."
"Yes, sir." The nose of the cruiser began to swing as the helmsman programmed the controls and the ship vibrated softly as the four thrust engines ignited.
Jack swiveled his chair to face Raulya behind him. "I need that power back for main engine startup..."
"You have it, we're finished."
"Thank you, Lieutenant." He nodded at her, "You may stand down your crews and dismiss them." As he swiveled back around, the communications officer announced an incoming message. "On screen please..."
Gant's grinning face appeared on the screen. "Without a hitch. Nice job, Mr. Steele. Well, you're on your own Freedom. Good luck! We'll send over our nav-course for the remainder of this sector, we appreciate the escort."
