A Woman Warrior
Copyright© 2018 by Allan Joyal
Chapter 35: Freya’s First Battle at Leoat
The next ten minutes were a moment of relaxation in the otherwise stressful environment on the bridge. Tilly was involved in a detailed talk with the gunners. I listened in a couple of occasions to discover that Todd and his recovery vehicle had successful arrived at Thane four and discovered that Leonard the gunner was alive, but had been shocked into unconsciousness by the energy discharge. Leonard was extracted from the scorched interior of the gunball and rushed to the elevator as Todd and his team had to lift the gunball from the grid before they could tractor it back to the hangar.
Philip seemed to be in a constant argument with a couple of his people. From the two times I listened in Janet and Karen had started arguing over the communications link despite being in separate duty stations. Philip was spending considerable time trying to defuse the situation. I gave him time to try to take charge before finally pressing a few buttons and sending a loud pulse of feedback down the channel.
“Now hear this,” I snarled. “If you two can’t get along, I’m going to use you to grease the treads of our gunballs. You aren’t here to win a contest for who is the badest bitch on Freya. You lost when you boarded because there is no bitch badder than me here, and I have the authority to prove it. Now shut down this argument or I’ll have one of the reserve helmsmen drag you to an airlock and throw you out.”
“You wouldn’t,” one of the two women said.
I immediately pulsed the feedback again, causing screams of dismay to ring out over the channel. Philip spun in his chair to look at me. “I’m not giving you an option. This argument ends now. Once this fight is over both of you will report to the Captain’s day room. You are both going to be marked down for misconduct as your argument is disrupting the ship as we go into a battle. Philip needs to coordinate your tracking, not mediate between two brainless cunts who haven’t figured out we aren’t in high school.”
“I graduated fifteen years ago,” one of the two arguing women protested.
“Then act like it and learn to work with your fellow tracking crew. Now if I have to get involved again, you really won’t enjoy the experience. For now, get back to your individual scanners and stop the petty stunts. Neither you are a big enough cunt to win once I am forced to get involved,” I snarled. “Captain out.”
“You tell em,” Tilly said. “Permission to ask for a record of that we can play for the gunners. I think they need to hear that you do run out of patience.”
“If a recording can be made, go ahead,” I said. “How are the gunners doing?”
“Some worry for Thane four. Todd rescued him, but all the gunners heard it was bad. Has damage control provided any clue as to what happened?” Tilly answered.
“Luther, what was the verdict on Thane four?” I asked.
“Someone tried to make a couple of modifications to their controls,” Luther said. “He shorted out a major capacitor and the flashback knocked him out. Its not too bad a repair, but he’s going to be in a medical pod for a while. He had some nasty burns.”
“Let me know when he is out,” I commanded. “Once he’s out, tell him to report to the Captain’s dayroom. Gunners are not to modify their controls. They are to leave that to the engineers. We can’t have this happen again.”
“Understood,” Luther said. “I’ll let Anne know of your orders and she can pass them on when he’s out of medical.”
“And the other two down gunballs?” I asked.
“We’ll have them out on the grid shortly. My people have finished the repairs and checked the diagnostics. They just have to finish the reassembly of the units and we can release them to the gunners,” Luther said proudly.
“Tilly, Thane four won’t be back for this battle, but the other two are being put back together and should be ready shortly. Make sure the gunners are ready to jump in. And let Este know that Thane four will need to report to me for disciplinary action,” I commanded.
“Captain, the pursuing Sa’arm ships are accelerating. It looks like they are making an attack run!” Philip cried out in a near panic.
I checked the display and the Sa’arm would be in range in two minutes. They still would need another ten before their smaller guns could reach us, and I did not intend to allow them to get that close.
“Tilly, have half of the Jarl team on one Sa’arm ship, half of Aesir on another, and half of Vanir on the third. Este can allocate them. All others are watching for incoming projectiles they can deflect or destroy with their guns. Defense first for now, but let’s see if we can eliminate the Sa’arm ships,” I commanded.
“On it,” Tilly said. I could hear her passing my commands on, but I was already checking the displays and the ship’s progress towards Leo Four.
“Else,” I said. “Start deviating from our course by moving up and down. Not huge distances, but at this speed even a couple of seconds means we move multiple kilometers up or down against the orbital plane.”
“On it,” Else said. “How close should I come to Leo Four?”
“If you can make sure that any ships like the ones behind us can’t hit us from orbit. Let’s force them to maneuver if they want to fire, so we can see them and hopefully fire first,” I commanded.
“Tangent no closer than four light seconds, aye,” Else said.
“Probably could go closer, but why risk it,” I muttered. “Our particle beams can definitely hit the objects under construction at that range and still do some damage.”
“Captain,” Tilly’s questioning voice broke through my musing. “Thane one was wondering why her team was not given a target.”
“Remind Lucy that there were only three targets and that I was splitting each team as I went. Its no reflection on her team,” I said. “Although you can remind her that Thane five is still in the hangar and Thane four is the one that had the energy discharge. Her team is down two gunners at the moment.”
Tilly gasped. “Oh, I heard that Thane five was in final and didn’t even think of that. Eugene should have his gunball on the grid in less than five minutes. I’ll let Lucy know what you told me.”
I nodded and opened a channel to the engineering officer’s station. Herb’s harried voice answered. “Captain?”
“Just checking in and seeing if there are reports I’m missing. Your department hasn’t called out since the run through the system started,” I said calmly.
Herb sighed. “Nothing that needs your attention. My crew is definitely green as there have been a couple of times people rushed steps and had to go back over their control panels. No major issues, but one of our reactors is pulsing. It’s a known problem with the design and we trained to calm it back down. Just don’t take any hits on the starboard side for five minutes and we’ll have it back running smooth.”
“The Sa’arm chasing us are on our port stern and won’t be in range of their particle guns for about ten minutes. Now we could,” I began.
“The enemy is launching missiles. I’m seeing five from each of the Sa’arm ships trailing us. Acceleration on the missiles appears to be fifty gees,” Philip called out.
“Pass the tracking information to Thane team and any gunner not on offensive duty,” I commanded. “Tilly tell our gunners I’m expecting a clear sky in thirty seconds.”
“On it,” Tilly replied. “She turned to her station. Else took a moment to look back at me. I noticed the motion and turned to gaze upon our helmsman.
“Else?” I asked.
“Are we safe?” she asked.
Philip’s voice broke in. “Good call on the tracking. We had a sixty percent kill rate on the missiles in the first volley. Only six missiles remain.”
I looked down at Else. “I think that Philip just answered the question. We have a good gunnery team and they’ve eliminated the majority of the approaching missiles long before they could approach. Now we just need to wait for them to hit the ships launching missiles.”