Chapter 58: First Ever Aftermath

My heart was feeling like someone had poured lead into it as I walked to the exit to the bridge. This had been a simply training exercise and one of my crew was seriously injured. To add to that, it seemed like half of the ship was suffering from minor glitches.

I exited the bridge and nearly ran over Private Ripa. The older man was standing there looking uncertain.

“Sorry,” he said.

“Nothing to be sorry about, but why aren’t you at your post?” I asked.

“My medical pod is still down,” he said. “And Private Truit said that missile one would take priority once he finished with the station in engineering. I’ve been told to expect no repair for at least twenty hours.”

“Probably longer,” I said. “I just realized we need to give people breaks. One moment.”

“Ensign White, Ensign Daniels,” I called out to the ceiling.

“Go ahead,” Ensign White said.

“I’m busy,” Ensign Daniels responded.

“I understand we are still working through all the bugs,” I said. “I just wanted to say that now that we’ve launched and proven we can operate the ship we should probably get the duty schedules settled. Unless we are fighting or doing a full crew training we can probably operate the ship with only a third of the crew active. For the railguns this means have two people up. For the missiles, I don’t worry so long as one missile station is fully manned. Ensign Daniels, you know what you need for the engine room.”

“What about the helm?” Terrence asked me.

“I was going to keep Blaine there for eight hours and then have you take over for eight,” I replied.

“And Mike after me?” Terrence asked.

“Exactly,” I said. “So you’re off duty for another six plus hours. AI be sure to inform both Lance Corporal Kelly and Private Ripa fifteen minutes before the changeover so they can be on time.”

“Command acknowledged,” the AI responded.

I waved towards the port side of the ship. “Come with me,” I said. “You can stop by the galley and get breakfast, while I head to the stern medical pod.”

“I do hope Brent recovers. I never talked to him much, but it was clear most of the crew respected him,” Terrence said.

“We’ll see,” I said. “There is a lot we still have to learn. It’s clear the simulations were not everything.”

“I like that the gravity can shift to match a turn, although I turned it off after the first turn. I don’t know if we need it anywhere other than the bridge,” Terrence said.

“Interesting observation,” I said. “And you might be right. I’ll have a talk with Ensign Daniels about that.”

We had walked far enough down the passage to see the door to the galley on our left. The door next to it opened and two men strode out from the passage heading to the rail guns. One looked at me and immediately snapped to attention.

“Private Cuthbert sir!” he barked out.

The other man looked surprised, but followed suit. His salute was sloppy. “Private Argent, sir!”

I returned their salute. “At ease,” I replied. “I’m guessing you were the first two to go off duty.”

“Yes sir,” Private Cuthbert replied. “Bruce told us that he’d go and work with the starboard crew to get their gun operational, and we could take the first down shift. We were coming here for a snack.”

“Carry on then,” I said. “And good job out there. We outperformed Ipanema.”

“Are you sure?” Private Argent asked. “The few times I saw Captain Prescott he seemed positive that his crew would be better than us.”

“Captain Parker,” Ensign Munfree’s voice called out. “I have Captain Prescott demanding a moment of your time.”

“Speaking of loud and annoying,” I muttered. I dropped the salute to the two privates. “You probably don’t want to listen.”

The two privates dashed for the galley. Private Ripa joined them in their scramble to get away from me as I looked up at the ceiling. “Put him through.”

“So you actually took my call,” Captain Prescott said poisonously. “I have to admit you surprised me. Who authorized the use of real ammunition in the training run?”

“Ensign White checked with the planetary AI and found that use of rail gun ammunition is authorized as long as no Confederacy property is in the danger zone. We have already setup a drone resupply for once we reach Crucible orbit,” I replied.

“Why orbit?” Captain Prescott asked.

“Because we have a few bad components,” I replied. “My machinist is demanding that every flow conduit have its control plates replaced.”

“But you beat Ipanema’s time in the training run and didn’t blow an engine,” Captain Prescott said. “My engineering officer said you had to have pushed the engines.”

“I think our helmsman said he took them up to thirty-eight percent. Engineering wouldn’t allow any draw above forty due to the issues with the flow conduits. It didn’t help that one of the flow tech stations shorted out,” I said.

“So your ship had some problems at launch,” Captain Prescott growled.

“I’m heading to one of my medical pods to check on a crewman. One of the missile stations overloaded during our launch. I have a critically injured crewman. Corsica’s starboard rail gun is down, and one of our two medical pods is down. All from problems that existed before launch,” I replied.

“It could have been poorly trained crew,” Captain Prescott suggested snidely.

“As of this time, none of the reviews of the crew’s actions shows any activity that could have caused the overload or the damage,” Corsica’s AI interjected.

“My ship’s computer says that it is unlikely that crew training contributed,” I offered.

“I heard. I heard the same thing after my Port side engine blew,” Captain Prescott growled.

“How long until you can complete repairs?” I asked.

“We’re having to receive deliveries of parts from the docks right now. The overload took out the shipboard repair replicator. My engineer believes we’ll be back up in about eighteen hours of work. The problem is,” Captain Prescott said.

“You have to give the men a break after about eight to ten or they make mistakes that extend the repair time,” I completed for the man.

“You do understand. How long for your repairs? And can your ship fight?”

“I haven’t heard an estimate on the starboard railgun,” I said. “But the damage was minor. A couple of the magnetic rings reversed polarity at the wrong time. We have a team reviewing that. My only weapon that is completely down is the missile station. Unfortunately, it was my best missile tech who was injured. I don’t have a timetable for his recovery.”

“Get it and let me know. Not because I want to give orders, but because it looks like we’ll need to work together. Your ship is in better shape than mine, but as I recall you are already short crew,” Captain Prescott said.

“I’m inclined to wonder what you are up to,” I said. “You’ve fought far too hard to get control over Corsica.”

“Look, I still think you’re too young to be a good captain. However, right now I’m more concerned with the fact that we are supposed to have two ships for this areas and right now we don’t have any,” Captain Prescott snarled.

“I expect that my engineers will have the engines fully repaired in six hours, if not less,” I said. “The other repairs might take longer, but we are combat capable right now. I’ll let you know if anything changes.”

I had continued walking while talking with Captain Prescott and was standing in front of the door to the stern medical pod. The door remained closed so I knocked on it. It immediately slid open.

“Captain Parker!” I heard Private Morrison say. “Its nice to see you.”

“I wish the circumstances were happier. Did you get Boswell into the pod?” I asked.

“Thanks to the efforts of Brad and Anders, he was put into the pod in time. But his hands were horribly burned. I expect him to be in the pod for over a day,” Private Morrison said.

“So much?” I heard Private Kelly say. He sounded frightened.

“He’s still alive, and will recover fully,” I said. “We will make sure he returns to his concubines.”

“How can you be sure?” Brad Kelly asked. “You’re a kid.”

I sighed and looked directly at the man. “Do you know that Ipanema had a major engineering failure? I didn’t ask Captain Prescott, but from what he did say their ship is going to take a couple of days to repair. Don’t think that I can’t do the job solely because of my age.”

“That’s not the problem,” Brad snarled. “You’re a brat. You have no idea how much you don’t know.”

“I probably do,” I said. “But that’s neither here nor there. You just have to obey orders. I’ve already heard that you had trouble listening to Ensign White earlier.”

“Who cares,” Private Morgan muttered. “We’re now trapped on this floating closet with a captain that isn’t old enough to shave.”

“Guys, we just outperformed Ipanema in our first trial. This crew is the best in the system. Don’t get petty and I’ll get you home alive,” I said. “Now why don’t you leave Private Morrison to do his job alone.”

The two missile crewmen left. Private Kelly glared at me as he passed through the doorway. I ignored their antics as I watched Private Morrison make some adjustments to the medical pod. When the door finally closed Private Morrison sighed.

“I don’t like those two. They are going to cause trouble,” he said sadly.

“I know, but we don’t have spare crew,” I responded. “Ensign White is dealing with them.”

“I just hope they don’t get anyone killed,” Private Morrison said. “Well, the good news is that Brent here will fully recover. But it will be a while. Can I get a break?”

“I already gave Private Ripa the shift off so he can take the helm next,” I said. “I’ll see if we can get someone from engineering to spell you for now. It might take a while.”

“It’s fine,” Private Morrison said. “There’s what I guess qualifies as a couch in here. If I have to I can nap in here.”

“Sounds good, but I’ll try to get you relieved,” I said as I stepped back to the door. “Carry on.”

Private Morrison saluted me. I returned the salute and then turned and left the medical room.

I could hear Privates Kelly and Morgan arguing about something in the passageway. They were towards the bow of the ship. My next planned stop was in the engineering department so I ignored the argument and turned to my left to head for the door to the engine room.

The door opened to reveal an area that seemed to contain dozens of shouting men.