TOW28

Chapter 28 - The Other War
11/18/3060 Location – Zenith Point B55-218-TW (Lan Zhenzhu, “The Blue Pearl”), Cloud Cobra Satrapy
The bridge of the Essex destroyer SLS Rondeau erupted in applause at the successful completion of the final jump from Circe. Claude, Nina, and Faye congratulated the skeleton crew of Newts on a job well done and successful homecoming. It was not a simple task to steal and resurrect a ghost ship and without them none of it would have been possible. The Zenith Stationmaster came in over the microwave bands from the small ‘lighthouse’ habitat that provided traffic control and a recharge slot to incoming Jumpships and now Warships, “Captain Tanaga, welcome to the Lan Zhenzhu system. SLS Shanghai is currently orbiting Kuxing. We are sending you a flight plan. Do not deviate and follow all nav beacons. Confirm.”
Nina watched as a flight plan materialized above the holo-table that took them to the ninth of the dozen worlds of Lan Zhenzhu. “Captain Nina Tanaga of the SLS Rondeau confirms course. We will begin our burn in ten minutes.”
“Affirmative Captain. Good fortune to you and your crew. Stationmaster out.”
She floated over to the Helm station and plugged the flight plan into the Warship’s renovated nav-computer. Faye was monitoring Comms and Sensors. Claude had suited up and moved down to Engineering ready for damage control. The thrusters were certified operational around Circe by the Roland Tusker. However, they only used them at less than half gee to reach their pirate point. This was the first full burn this machine had undertaken in centuries there were bound to be a few bugs.
“Claude, are your teams ready?”
“Aff, Captain.”
“Okay activating thrusters now. Point one (gee) per two minutes.” She confirmed something on the system’s computer with the Newt there, “Power Plant is hot. All non-critical systems are cold.”
The throttle edged slightly, and the thrusters came alive throwing out superheated plasma that began to slowly accelerate the 620 Kiloton vessel toward The Blue Pearl’s ninth planet. Rondeau gradually picked up acceleration until Nina was pushing its cruising max of 1.5 g. One of the Newts shouted out, “Thruster pod temperature is rising but within acceptable limits for now, Captain.”
“That is what they are supposed to do right?”
“Aff, Captain.”
“Can we push it to the Max.”
“I wouldn’t advise it Captain.”
“We’re doing it anyway. What’s a shakedown cruise for if we aren’t going to push the limits? Our velocity is still not that high. Better now than later.”
“Very well, Captain.”
Klaxons rang across the ship as the High Gee alarm went off, Claude’s voice came in over their personal communicators. “What are you doing, Nina?”
“Seeing if anything will break before we get to Newgrange better to find out now when they can fix it. Quiaff?”
Down in Engineering Claude shrugged his shoulders, he was already strapped into one of the reinforced jump seats designated for Damage Control personnel during combat maneuvers. “You are the, Captain Nina.”
He looked around at the other FireNewts in their SCCs already securing the rest of the straps in their chairs. “We are secure down here.”
Other stations confirmed their readiness and Nina pushed the throttle higher into the yellow zone of 2 gees. “Thruster pods are heating up. Cooling is fully engaged Captain. We will max out soon and have to shut down pod three. Its temperature is rising rapidly.”
“We are going all the way to the edge. Push those Interplanetary Sevens to their limits. This is a Warship Newt. Safety is secondary when you are already in harm’s way.” The throttles ticked up painfully slow as she continued accelerating. Behind them was a blazing trail of plasma reaching out three times their length. Alarms blared on the bridge and down in Damage Control. “Thruster Pod Three’s shielding is impaired. I have to shut it down or it will burn itself up Captain.”
“Do it!”
One of the three Thruster pods glowed white hot as the plasma ate through a hole in the magnetic shielding that channeled the fury of a sun behind them. The Titanium, Tungsten, and Ceramic structure were beginning to soften before the pod was shut down immediately and flushed with non-recirculated coolant that formed a trail of Ammonia gas behind them and dissipated the heat saving the metal from melting and ceramics from cracking. Chief Engineer Lou and his team walked up to the Bridge followed by Claude and two FireNewts. “Captain, we have to do a full underway assessment on Pod Three. I have called the Shanghai and asked for a team to expedite repairs. They should arrive in three days. Until then we can only safely cruise at zero-point eight gee without putting undue strain on the other pods which will also need to be assessed and serviced.”
Nina was quiet for a moment, “I understand Chief Engineer. It needed to happen though; this is a Warship that will likely be going into combat. I need to know what it is capable of; we cannot do that if we simply cruise at safe speeds.”
The Newts walked away quietly attending to their many tasks, the high gee maneuver had shaken several of the fuselage panels off and caused an industrial exoskeleton to smash into one of the water tanks. Claude looked at her with a wary eye, “Do you think that was reckless Star Commander?”
He paused a moment, “Aff.”
Nina eyed him as he neared, “That doesn’t mean it wasn’t necessary. You were not wrong Nina. This is a Warship. It will likely see combat sooner rather than later. I would rather serve aboard a proper Warship then something that never exceeded safety limits.
We are Warriors and our ways are not the same as these Spacers. Space suffers no fools Nina; they live under constant threat from mundane hazards. It makes them timid, but we can give them confidence to push those limits. Faye and I see it all the time in training. They fail to commit and overthink every action. They live with an action having an equal and opposite reaction every moment of their lives. Everything is circles to them, but we need them to be arrows.
Direct
Lethal
Grounded.
It is going to take time. Have patience and understand their plight.
Now I must put a few more FireNewts into my quiver.”
Claude turned to the helmeted and armed FireNewts, he reattached his helmet and readied his laser rifle. “Move out men! We are going to the range.”
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