Chapter 19: Battle Aftermaths

It is not really possible to properly describe the next two hours. I found that I was trying to deal with fighting against multiple smaller Sa’arm ships as the Goddess class ship I was commanding twisted and turned both to avoid other ships, and to find good angles for the gunners. One thing I learned very quickly was that the best angle for fighting was to approach at an angle so that the gunners could bring more gunballs to bear. Head on approaches put the ship at too much of a disadvantage, but three of the helmsmen seemed to pay too much attention to the location of enemy ships and would instinctively try to fly directly at a target rather than hold to a vector I gave.

Fast turns also proved to be interesting. At one point I commanded that the ship be flipped a full one hundred eighty degrees and accelerate away from the current vector. Of the thirteen helmsmen, Scott had jumped back in and was participating even after I asked the AI to disqualify him, only two tried to shut the engines down and pivot the ship before applying acceleration again. Four turned right, six helmsmen turned left and the last one took the ship into a dive that quickly became an attempt to perform an inverted Immelmann turn.

A couple of the trainees stood out. One young man seemed to understand the size of a Goddess class ship and the inertia that was built up by any maneuver. During the test he never attempted any slides or fast turns. Every adjustment was precise and well timed. My only issue was that it was soon clear that he had little feel for any form of off-vector facing. If he could not point the nose in the direction the ship was supposed to be moving in, he struggled to maintain the ship’s speed.

Another young man had a ton of flare and was willing to take risks with applied thrust to whip the ship around in wild turns. Unfortunately, that meant that some of his maneuvers brought the ship almost to a halt as the thrust from the engines would directly oppose the vector the ship was travelling in.

The only other man who appeared remotely ready had been the black man who offered me some chocolate before the event started. He lacked the precision of Justin, and the flare of Nathan, but DeMarcus was perhaps the only one who seemed to take a moment to look at how each adjustment would change the ship’s vector. His turns tended to be a moment late, but throughout the two hours he never had to reverse thrust to correct an overzealous maneuver.

The lights were coming up and Scott almost leapt from his chair. “What gives!” he shouted. “I joined in every maneuver and I see that my efforts were not scored. How can you do that?”

“You had your hands behind your head and your console was not even completely powered up when I told the AI to start the simulation,” I replied sharply. “It was clear you were not taking this seriously. Perhaps another commander will have time to get you up to speed on how serious the helmsman position is, but I have other issues that I wish to concentrate on.”

“So I just don’t get a score?” Scott whined.

“Scott Sanders,” the AI intoned from above us. “As Commander Walker reported, he was not ready at the moment the simulation began. During the simulation he missed two turn commands, and on two others he initially started the ship turning in the wrong direction. The corrective measures were prompt, but would have left the ship motionless within range of the enemy weapons. He did not have the worst overall score, but did score in the bottom five for all participants.”

“What?” Scott said. “But the sleep training indicated that my maneuvers were correct.”

“For a President class carrier they would have been,” the AI responded. “But for a Goddess there is a greater need to maintain a positive vector.”

“Huh?” Scott said. “Why?”

“I’m guessing that a carrier is going to work to remain out of gun range of any enemy ship, so a turn that brings the ship to a temporary halt is not as dangerous, especially if the ship is in the middle of launching or recovering fighters,” I said.

“Makes sense,” a woman who was standing behind me said.

I turned to see Jen Gates standing there. The young woman had a smile on her face as she looked around the room.

“Who are you?” one of the young women who had tried out for helmsman asked.

“I’m Jen Gates,” the woman replied. “Don’t worry, I’m not in the running for command of any ship you were trying out for. My training is for Patrician class corvettes. I came by because I wanted to see how this worked.”

“Confusing, and a bit difficult,” I said. “I was having to listen to thirteen different people replying to each command and then watch the results. I can say to all of you that you need to reply by repeating back the command.”

“What?” Nathan asked. “Why would I do that?”

“It’s a way to show that you heard the command that was given,” Bruno replied. “Its something recommended that all commanders use early in training and try to enforce on their ships.”

Estefani was nodding. “I’ve already done the same thing with the gunners I’m working with. During one simulation we had several people misinterpret an order and ended up with two targets not receiving any fire because teams prioritized the wrong target as their primary. The simulation indicated that the ship we were on would have been lost to enemy fire.”

“Which is why we train and why I asked if I could conduct this simulation,” I said. I was reviewing the scores. The AI had taken some time to compile the overall ratings as well as ratings for accuracy, efficiency and response. DeMarcus had managed to have the best overall score, despite not being in the top three on any individual rating. Justin had the accuracy of his manuevers down, but had been dragged down by efficiency and response scores that were average. Nathan had come in near last on accuracy, but actually pulled his overall score to fourth thanks to top scores in both efficiency and response.

The second score went to a teenage man who had slipped in quietly just before the start of the simulation. David Pullman had the second-best overall score. He definitely needed to improve his responses to commands, but his overall command of the controls was impressive. He clearly struggled a bit with being assertive, but he had a sincere need to be seen as dependable.

The third best overall score had gone to a dumpy housewife by the name of Elsa Voss. Her soprano voice had been calm and clear throughout the simulation. She claimed the third spot thanks to an incredible consistency. All of her scores were in the top six, although none were the top score for any of the categories.

Estefani put a hand on my shoulder. “What do you think?” she asked.

I sighed. “It was chaotic and frustrating.”

“How so?” Bruno asked. “I mean, I can see just how much information you were trying to keep track of and that was with this just being a test for the helmsmen. How much more complex can it get?”

“Quite a bit more, I’m afraid. Once you add in the need to keep engineering and damage control into the regular reporting, and you have to maintain clear instructions to all weapons stations you start to want to have good officers who can filter the information and make sure only the important bits are communicated to you. Things like assigning individual guns to targets will not be something that I have the ability to concentrate on,” I replied.