Alien Shore Chapter Seven
GRID Traveler Trinity: Alien Shores
Author: J Carrell Jones
Table of Content
Chapter 7
‘Twas eight o’clock in the morning when they began to fight, and so they did continue there till nine o’clock at night; fight on, fight on, says Captain Ward this sport well pleases me, for if you fight this month or more, your master I will be.
O then the gallant Rainbow, she fired she fired in vain. Till six and thirty of her men
All on the deck were slain; go home, go home, says Captain Ward and tell your king for me, if he reigns king all on the land Ward will reign king on the sea.
- (Ward the Pirate, circa 1680 by W. Onley in London)
- (Ward the Pirate, circa 1680 by W. Onley in London)
Chapter 7
Loggar and Sean sat at a table in Starboard’s Bow. They were lucky. A table overlooking the forward most view port was available. Sean loved this spot but he would never declare ‘Rank hath its privilege’ so he was happy that the spot was open. Cookie made a victory meal. It was a sort of chicken breast cooked in some sort of sauce. It lay on a bed of flat noodle pasta covered in a white sauce. It was absolutely delicious. Cookie himself served Sean and Loggar.
Sean said, “Cookie, you ever think about becoming a warrant? Maybe run two mess halls?”
Cookie laughed and simply said, “maybe, maybe not. Can I have a quarters facing immediate bow? Maybe one large view port?” And he walked away.
Sean made a mental note to ask Pulse if his team could convert one of the forward rooms to a quarter with a view. Cookie gave him an opening and Sean was determined to take advantage.
“Okay, Sean, explain to me how you easily defeated one of GRID Commands finest?”
Sean had forked a piece of chicken and swirled some pasta. He took a bite and savored the taste. He nodded, “Easily . . . that is a pretty misleading word. The Johnson could have easily been destroyed.”
Loggar thought a second and said, “Easily destroyed? Really?”
Sean forked and twirled another bite. Damn, Cookie was good. This settled it, he thought, Pulse’s team was going to make Cookie’s new quarters. He was going to discuss it with Dawn and get her input. He was sure Mr. Grant would be highly pissed, but, hell, if the man knew how to cook and or either knew how to supervise other cooks he would never have contemplated replacing him. The main question was, of course, how to get rid of him. He couldn’t space the man. Sean took another bite and thought he had died and gone to ‘food critic’ heaven.
“Sean?”
“Sorry, this dish is just too delicious. Yes . . . hmmm . . . I guess I could start with how the Webster was defeated. Or would you like the mechanics? It wasn’t anything Robin did wrong; it was what Robin didn’t do right.”
Loggar, for the first time, took a bite of her chicken meal. It was tasty. “Hmmm, what she didn’t do right?”
Sean nodded. “What she should have done was drop her shields and then immediately raised them. Basically, the Johnson merged shields. And since we had the greater inertia the electrostatic force and inverse square law were on our side. We had the greater potential of attractive force. Webster tried to strengthen her shields . . . ”
“And in strengthening the shields, Webster created a more positive potential toward the Johnson! The shield emitters would either burn out or be ripped from the Webster’s hull. Something like a tractor beam for emitters?”
Sean nodded. “The Johnson had forward momentum, the reason for getting the engines at one three zero percent. There would be some bleed off of forward speed. But we had the momentum advantage. And in initially dropping the Johnson’s shields strength to a third and increasing the diameter by almost six we guaranteed that both shields would merge.”
Loggar said, “Ahh, you fired upon the Webster to weaken her shields and when you expanded the Johnson’s shield, at a certain shield harmonics, it became one large shield!”
Sean grinned. His lover was very smart. “Yep, and when the Johnson cut across the Webster’s top bow we shrank the shields. The Webster was going one way, the Johnson, with the more positive potential, was going the other way had the greatest attraction. We stripped off, in a few cases literally, the Webster’s shield emitters. It’s a very risky tactic.”
Loggar took a bit. “How so?”
“Well, for a moment the Webster was within the Johnson’s shields. The Johnson would have been completely unprotected from any firepower from the Webster. A few good torpedo shots and we would not be having this conversation.”
Loggar shuddered. “Really?”
“Really. Fortunately, Robin has an ego issue. She feels that Johnson and its fighter squad are an old and antiquated lot. Most of the newer captains think that way. Some of them think they follow the Way of the Warrior but they don’t, not really. They think massive guns and a new ship can win any war.”
Loggar sat and listened. They had finished the main meal. Earlier she ordered a red wine, Sean did the same. Now she was listening to him. It delighted her that Sean finally opened up and started talking about himself and how he did things.
“It’s tactics and understanding the enemy.” He sipped his wine and gazed out.
An Ensign walked over to them. “Ma’am, Captain, may I get you anything?”
Sean smiled; the rumors were going to fly tonight. “Yeah, another bottle and some cheese and crackers.” He looked over to Loggar, “Kathy?”
She thought for a moment, “Do you have any grapes? Red?”
The Ensign nodded, “Yes, ma’am.”
Loggar beamed, “I’ve had this craving for grapes for six months now.”
The Ensign nodded and stepped away.
“Sean,” She began, “You know something has to happen.”
He nodded. His back was against the edge of the table with his elbows on top. He crossed his legs. “Yeah, I know. Six pilots died today. That is never good. GC seems to be split, maybe.” He waited for her to say something. She didn’t. “One or two things happened today. Robin is working inside GRID Command and her orders are real, or I’m operating outside GC and my orders are not real.”
He let that sink in.
“However, Webster had been deployed to Necron hours before Johnson. Your message to me had apparently been delayed.” He stopped to consider something and looked at Loggar.
She had an alarmed and distressed look on her face.
“Kathy, don’t worry, I’m thinking out loud. It helps me sort through things, even the most obvious. My orders are legitimate. They went from you through the proper channels. That tells me that someone went behind your back – is going behind your back.”
The Ensign brought the items, set them on the table, and left.
Sean looked back out the view port. “How many enemies do you have within GRID Command?”
Loggar said nothing for a long time. “May we should take these things to your room?”
Sean smiled and nodded. He got up and walked to the Ensign. He said something to him. The Ensign nodded. “Okay, Kathy, let’s take a walk first. We should get your staff situated and your equipment secured.”
She nodded and followed Sean out.