Chapter 6

According to Encyclopedia Galactic, sector 25 is a lonely place.

“One of the last sectors to be explored before the war, it has little to no economic value. The asteroid belt and planets hold no rare or hard to find minerals. There are very little commerce and few settlements. What is most visited in the area, is the Navy resupply depot with its comprehensive general store. It features a wide selection of essential amenities including those hard to get items, such as cigars or nail clippers.”

To the Navy, this was the perfect place to put a ship full of cadets and trainees. Nothing to break or to destroy, other than the station they were on.

If I hear “are we there yet?” one more time I will just scream You would think that an ‘all knowing’ super smart computer could find something to do, but no, he’s like a small child that way.

This ship, unlike the carrier, is a closed system for Wilson. No fleet communications to investigate, no networks to play in, no real trouble to cause.

I did try to keep him occupied, I let him tell me some stories. Toys that talk? And something about a red shoe? Such a weirdo.

I was happy.

I now have unrestricted access to most of the tech manuals and the occasional visit to ship’s engineering. I tried to not be a pest but, it was a long voyage.

So far so good, no assassins no unexplained deaths. It’s difficult to keep one eye open while sleeping.

My new assignment is to be an engineering third, basically, a gopher. Other duties to be determined sounds ominous. Hopefully, it’s not too bad.

Most days on this ship I sit in the mess hall, reading up on the 15 years of tech that I missed, trying to stay out of the crew’s way. That, of course, doesn’t stop crew members from talking to me. Seems I’m famous, more infamous really. It’s that whole enemy thing, that and building my own space station.

The trip out to the school was pretty long, about two weeks. This destroyer is a Delta class B, which means it was old when the war began. At 40 years old it’s ancient for a warship. The engines have at least been upgraded so, I guess, that makes it a B2 model. I would have to ask the chief. Regardless, it is mega-slow compared to the new Empire class ships.

It was the ship’s alarm that roused me from my sleep. My first thought was “not again!”

I threw on my uniform and went to my assigned emergency station. Although passengers were considered cargo for trips like these, we were still Navy officers and crew. In theory, we had the basic training to help fight the ship.

The CIC was my station for whatever this was. On a destroyer, the CIC is one of the most protected spots on the ship. If something happens to the bridge, the CIC can take over and still fight. Since I was an engineer, I was put in with the emergency repair backup crew.

As I entered, the Lt. Commander in charge gave me our ships status. Three ships had been detected hiding in the nearby asteroid field. When we had hailed them, those ships attacked us. The attack vessels looked to be some sort of pirate or raider ships. Very unusual for them to take on a Navy destroyer, even one old as this one. Our captain, a decorated war veteran, fought his ship with great skill and navigation.

The first pirate ship, an old AA Stuka IV, was quickly destroyed using the ships main guns. After that, the other two pirates kept their distance.

Pirate number two got a little too close on a torpedo run, and our point defense system took him out. Unfortunately for us, the torpedoes that the pirate had launched hit us damaging our engines.

At half speed, we were now unable to outrun the last raider ship. That pirate began strafing our ship looking for weak spots in our armor. Damage reports from across the ship began filtering into CIC. The repair crew was sent out, including me. Engineering and life support had been hit the hardest. Our team was split up.

I proceeded to life support with my part of the team. The ship was shuddering with the pounding it was taking. The Life support area was in an older part of the ship. The bulkheads here were starting to screech and groan with the strain of the ship’s maneuvers. The life support panel had broken loose from one such bulkhead. Fortunately, we were able to shore it up and repair the damaged circuits.

Soon the battle was over, the captain suckered the last pirate with a couple of fire and forget missiles and easily destroyed him. Engineering was a mess. Half our engines were out, and the ship had several large holes to deal with. Repairs started immediately.

The crew got the ship repaired just in time for help to arrive. It was the training ship Empire. Her rookie flight school patrolled the area, while we docked, using the aft docking ring. The wounded went aboard first. Not very many were injured in the attack.

My first impression of the Empire as I stepped off the destroyer was ... BIG. This was a big ship.

Dreadnought sized it was the largest non-carrier ship I had ever been on. I knew, from my reading, that although it was a school, it was still an active naval vessel.

Flight school, officers’ academy, and intensive technical training were taught here. You got your basic training in the Navy on a planet in sector 6. Here, this ship was the vocational school. Standing at the end of the walkway was a commander that looked as though he wanted my attention. I approached him, coming to attention.

“Sir?”

“Ah, Lieutenant Lee I presume? The captain and I had a very long communication from the Admiralty concerning you. We are looking forward to seeing what you can do. Follow me please.”

As ordered, I walked with Commander Wang, he told me his name as we discussed my trip.

He agreed with me that the pirate attack was unusual, in that they don’t normally go after Navy ships. The Captain was found on the bridge. She was a short, stout woman with gray hair.

Captain Michaels signaled the navigation officer to take command of the ship. She turned in our direction, “Commander, in my ready room, please. You too Lieutenant.”

The ready room was located just off the bridge for easy access.

“You may be seated. Lieutenant, the Admiralty sent a very long message concerning you. I am aware of the political issues that your recent imprisonment may have caused. It appears that none of it was your fault. It is the assassination attempt that is the main issue. Naval Intelligence believes that the pirate attack against the Tokyo Bay was another attempt on your life.”

My jaw just dropped open with surprise. “What Captain? Why? Have they discovered who it is that’s trying to kill me?”

“It appears that there is a $30 million credit bounty on your head. Intelligence thinks that the Buckley family is fronting the attacks. But they can’t prove it. Just so you know, the former governor has been released. His political connections have kept him out of jail, but he has lost his government position. We think these attempts are all very personal.”

“Why was he released? He had them torture and try to kill me!”

Nodding her head, the Captain looked at me. “He was very careful to not have any written or vid records of him giving those orders. All the orders appear to be given by his staff. None ever came directly from him. All the evidence is circumstantial and to arrest a politician that is not enough to convict.”

What kind of crazy galaxy have I come home to? I should have stayed on my station I thought.

Catching my attention, the Captain said “ What we plan to do with you is move you around on the ship to see what skills you have. Based on your prior Navy experience and your actions aboard the destroyer, we know that you have engineering skills. I understand that that is your chosen career. However, you are in the Navy, and there are other skills that you should know. Flight training is one of them. You can fix ships, now learn how to fly them. Contact my office if there are issues. Try to pay close attention to your surroundings. Security will be increased on this ship while you are here, but watch yourself. Commander Wang will show you to your quarters and get you set up with locations and orders.”

The next morning, a ‘bouncy’ midshipman gave me a tour of the ship ending in the flight bay.

Time to start my new job.

I never dreamed that I would be flying the ships that I wanted to build.

Flight instructor Macdonald greeted me as I entered the room. “Welcome, Lieutenant, to your first day of flight training. We fly two different fighters here along with shuttles and assault craft. You, get to learn all of them.”

At my grimace, he chuckled. “Don’t worry, we are not making you into an expert fighter pilot. But we do want you to be able to at least solo in all of the spacecraft. Think of the performance details that you will learn. You can’t say that knowing first hand, how a ship operates won’t help when you repair it?”

“Yes, sir. You are right. Being able the see a problem or malfunction will make repairing it easier.”

It is time to hit the books. I had ahead of me several weeks of the class tutorial to catch up on and then on to the basic flight.