Chapter 2

After his brief conversation with Sergeant Thomas, Sergeant Michaels threw the switch that opened the rear hatch of the shuttle. Thomas was down the ramp and through the hatch that led to the bridge before the others could leave the cockpit. Not seeing Sergeant Thomas, Commander Tilletson asked where she went.

"She said something about adjusting the gravity, Sir."

At Sergeant Michaels comment, both the Raznits pilots groaned. They knew for a fact that Sergeant Thomas was not going to decrease the gravity. Until now, they thought the 'Tavnit Oma' would be a refuge from Earth's crushing gravity. First these Humans renamed the ship the 'USS Harriet Tubman, ' whatever a Harriet Tubman was. Now they were changing it from Collut and Rignow's last taste of their home on Raznit into a miniature Earth. If they knew the story of Harriet Tubman's trips into the South to rescue slaves before the American Civil War, they would have been even more nervous.

Walking down the ramp of the shuttle, Commander Tilletson looked around the hanger deck of his new command. This was the first time one of his commands had a hanger deck; so he did not know exactly what he was looking for. One thing he did not expect was the view of the stars and a corner of the Earth swimming in front of him. Turning to Lieutenant Collut, the Commander asked how it was possible to see outside the ship without being sucked out into the vacuum. The initial response from Collut did not make any sense. The translation program was only able to translate half of Collut's words into English.

Sergeant Michaels came to their rescue, starting a series of questions and responses in Raznits. Each of Collut's responses elicited additional questions from Michaels until Michaels finally switched to English.

"Commander, the ship has a "Ginderwitz Generator." From the description, I think it's a force field generator. The force field is permeable to shuttles with force fields tuned to it; however the atmosphere inside the ship cannot pass through. There is a large door which covers the opening when the ship is in motion or all the shuttles are in the hanger bay."

"Thank you, Michaels. If you are staying on the 'Tubman', you need to learn the correct terms. The opening is a hatch, and the door over it is a hatch cover. In this case, it would be an airtight hatch cover."

"OK Sir. I hope you'll forgive me if I don't always remember. After all, I'm just a poor farm boy from Vermont."

Every time he gives me one of those aw shucks, I'm just a dumb farm boy acts, I want to check my wallet, thought Tilletson. Speaking out loud he added: "I wonder how well that force field will stop a weapon?"

"I'll ask the pilots."

Michaels, Collut, and Ensign Rignow talked for a few minutes before Michaels gave the Commander an answer. From what the two pilots said, the force field would stop several blasts from energy cannons the size a shuttle or a scout ship carries. It would not stop more than one blast from the energy cannons on a Raznits destroyer, and a Raznits cruiser's energy cannon would shred the force field like tissue paper.

If Michaels understood correctly, it would stop the force from the explosion of a medium sized "Lignorine Warhead," if it exploded more than ten "Bolnard" from the ship. He was still trying to understand Raznits measurements. From what he understood, a bolnard was one thousand "Rannard." From working with Collut and Rignow at FOB Burr, Michaels determined that a rannard was 1.25 meters or 49.21 inches. This made a bolnard 1.25 kilometers or 4,101 feet. Michaels still needed to figure out the meaning of the word lignorine, although he had some suspicions.

Ensign Rignow and Lieutenant Collut showed Commander Tilletson around the rest of the hanger bay. Looking at the two main hatchways from the hanger bay into the rest of the ship, Tilletson noticed they were both three quarters of the way open and full of holes.

Tilletson asked. "What happened to the hatches into the main part of the ship?"

"That's what happens when a 240 Bravo round hits a wall."

"What is a 240 Bravo and why did it hit the wall?"

"A 240 Bravo is a 7.63 millimeter machinegun. After Sergeant Smith's squad shot the Tuvet Marat, they had to pry open the doors to get out and help the rest of us. If you think the doors, I mean hatches look bad you should have seen the Tuvet Marat. The rounds literally cut them in half. After the other Raznits stopped throwing up, we made them clean up the mess." Chuckling, Michaels added. "I don't know what they would do if they had to hose a friend's brains off the ceiling of a truck cab."

"What are you talking about?"

"In Iraq, before you can fix a truck or HMMV hit by an IED, you have to hose down the passenger compartment. There's always blood, and usually chunks of the former occupants. After the fifth of sixth vehicle, you just don't notice anymore."

Commander Tilletson thought. This man is a lot harder than I thought. I guess I need to rethink my opinion of homosexuals. He seems to have lived in Hell's antechamber and just doesn't care anymore. I don't want to piss off someone who thinks being upset about hosing someone's brains off the ceiling of a truck cab is funny.

Seeing the look the Commander was giving him Michaels said, "Commander, you need to know that at FOB Burr, our idea of a good day was one where we had no sniper attacks, and only one or two mortar rounds exploding in the compound. Anytime we left the FOB there was a chance we'd come back in a body bag."

At that moment they felt the gravity on the ship increase.

Entering the deserted bridge, Sergeant Thomas called the master computer. The first thing she did was order the computer to increase the gravity throughout the ship. Taking pity on the two Raznits pilots, she told the computer to set the gravity at ninety percent of Earth normal. She then added a command that unless someone countermanded her order, the gravity was to increase to Earth normal in seven days.

After taking care of the reason she gave for going ahead to the bridge, she started working on the real reason for her trip. The first thing she asked the computer was how a change in command took place, in order of precedence. The computer informed her that the Emperor could change the Captain of any IRSN ship by sending a change of command order with the proper command codes attached to the message. If the current Captain was alive, he could change the command by ordering the computer to accept a new Captain.

If the Captain died, the next person in the chain of command automatically received full command control. This was why Lieutenant Commander Soblat could transfer command to Sergeant Thomas. When Sergeant Thomas announced the death of Captain Garatta, the computer automatically checked to verify the information. Finding a corpse in the shuttle bay whose DNA matched the Captain's was sufficient confirmation that Captain Garatta was dead. At that point, Lieutenant Commander Soblat became the official Captain with all rights and privileges of the position.

During a regular watch, the Commander of the Watch had almost the same control over the computer as the Captain. This was subject to override by the Captain, or any officers senior to the Commander of the Watch. The computer maintained a complete list of all officers and enlisted men in order of their command seniority. This way, if everyone except a spacer third class was incapacitated, the spacer third class could command the ship. The computer explained that spacer third class was the lowest rank for IRSN enlisted men.

Because of Sergeant Thomas' previous commands, there were only four people in the chain of command other than the Emperor. When Sergeant Thomas asked how to remove the Emperor from the chain of command, the computer informed her that this was in its core programming and could not be changed.

Sergeant Thomas gave the computer a command to change Sergeant Michaels' rank from Sergeant to Mister. She then informed the computer that as long as Michaels was on board, he could override all commands, including the commands of the designated Captain. Sergeant Thomas then ordered the computer to remove Staff Sergeant Juan Ortiz and Sergeant John Smith from the ship's chain of command. Her final command was that unless someone asked directly, the computer was not to disclose that Mister Robert Michaels outranked the ship's Captain.

By the time she finished her instructions, Sergeant Thomas heard Sergeant Michaels in her headset. He told her Commander Tilletson and the rest of the party was approaching the bridge. The change in gravity slowed the party down. At ninety percent of Earth normal, the gravity was just over one hundred and twelve percent of Raznits normal.

Two minutes later, Sergeant Thomas welcomed Commander Tilletson to the bridge. She informed the Commander that she removed the other Sergeants' names from the command structure. She indicated Sergeant Michaels was still listed as a crewmember, because he would be running Research and Development. Then she asked. "Commander, before I relinquish command, may I have the honor of renaming the ship?"

"Sergeant Thomas, you and your people captured this ship, and you suggested the new name. I think it is only appropriate you rechristen her the 'USS Harriet Tubman.'"

"Thank you, Commander."

Sergeant Thomas proceeded to ask the computer how to rename the ship. When the computer did not seem to understand, Sergeant Michaels asked the computer the same question in Raznits. The computer then gave Sergeant Michaels instructions in Raznits for changing the designation of a ship. As the official Captain, Sergeant Thomas could change the name with the approval of one other officer.

When Sergeant Michaels translated all of this into English, Sergeant Thomas paused, trying to decide what to do. She definitely did not want to reveal that after her last set of instructions, Sergeant Michaels had more command authority than the Captain. She had Sergeant Michaels ask the computer if he could act as the concurring officer, after his change in status. Without telling anyone what his new status was, the computer agreed that Mister Michaels would qualify to authorize the name change.

The conversation between Michaels and the computer occurred entirely in Raznits. Commander Tilletson only understood the translations provided by Michaels. At that moment, Tilletson resolved to start learning Raznits from Ensign Rignow before the end of the day.

Sergeant Thomas, with the assistance of Sergeant Michaels, rechristened the 'Tavnit Oma' as the 'USS Harriet Tubman.' They also told the computer that it would also respond to the alternative designation of the 'Tubman.' The computer informed Sergeant Thomas that she was officially the first Captain of the 'USS Harriet Tubman.' When Sergeant Michaels translated that into English, a huge grin spread across Sergeant Thomas' face. Before she transferred command of the 'Tubman' to Commander Charles Tilletson, he congratulated her for being the 'Tubman's' Plankowner Captain.

Thomas asked him what a Plankowner Captain was. Tilletson explained that Plankowners are members of a ship's initial crew. The tradition started in the days of sailing ships when the name of the ship was painted on a plank fastened to the stern of the ship. As first Captain and a member of the initial crew she joined the select group of 'Tubman' Plankowners.

The next order of business was the official command transfer. First, Sergeant Thomas gave the computer her name and Army identification number and stated she was officially transferring command of the 'USS Harriet Tubman' to Commander Charles Michael Tilletson. Second, following the same format Commander Tilletson gave the computer his full name and Navy identification number and stated he officially accepted command.

Sergeant Thomas proceeded to explain to the Commander how to add and remove people from the command structure of the 'Tubman', and how the computer dealt with changes of command. Then she told him there was a time bomb in the computer. The Commander looked at Sergeant Thomas as if she had just told him there was a cockroach on his bridge. The Sergeant proceeded to explain about how a command from the Raznits Emperor, with the proper command code attached, could remove anyone from command of the ship.

Both Commander Tilletson and Sergeant Michaels agreed that having a first rate computer programmer learn Raznits and reprogram the computer's command transfer protocol would be a good idea. Commander Tilletson looked thoughtful for several minutes. Then he said "I know just the person for this. I had an IT-3 that ETS-ed about three months ago. His name was Randal O'Leary."

Michaels asked. "What is an IT-3 and how will that help us?"

"An IT-3 is a Third Class Petty Officer who is an Information Systems Technician. In other words, he was a computer geek. He left the 'Kansas' to write computer games in Silicon Valley. He'd just love working on this ship."

"Sounds like a winner Captain, you tell me where to find him and I'll make him an offer he can't refuse. I have no desire to face a Raznits destroyer that can take over control of this ship with a simple radio transmission."

"I agree. I don't want someone stealing my command out from under me in the middle of a battle."

For the first time, Commander Tilletson realized that Sergeant Michaels was someone he really would like to have next to him in a battle. The Commander decided that Michaels could keep his head in dangerous situations. Either he was not afraid in combat, or he kept going in spite of his fears. Tilletson hoped it was the latter. Anyone who was not afraid made mistakes in battle that cost other people's lives. Someone who acted in spite of his fears tended to take calculated risks to win while protecting people under his command if possible. From what he saw and heard about Michaels, it appeared the man would not let fear prevent him from doing his job. This was a quality Tilletson wanted in his subordinates. He was starting to think of Michaels as if he were an Executive Officer in charge of the civilians on the 'Tubman.'

Over the next hour, with Michaels' assistance, the two Raznits officers explained the function of each of the control stations on the bridge. When they reached the navigation station, Ensign Rignow seemed to light up. His explanations started to flow so fast Michaels could not even keep up with him. Twice he had to make Rignow slow down and repeat something, just to understand it. As the explanation became more technical, Michaels was finding himself having to ask for a definition of almost every third word.

Commander Tilletson was finding himself more and more impressed with Sergeant Michaels. In the space of one week, he went from encountering a language he never heard before to carrying on a conversation about the highly technical topic of interstellar navigation. Commander Tilletson was not the only one impressed by the Sergeant Michaels language skills. Lieutenant Collut listened to the conversation between Sergeant Michaels and Ensign Rignow.

The more he heard, the more he realized exactly how intelligent Humans were. With a sad sinking sensation, he realized that the Raznits Empire would not even know what hit them until it was too late. If he understood the Humans' rank system, Sergeant Michaels had the same rank as an IRSN Petty Officer First Class. Lieutenant Collut never met an IRSN Petty Officer as intelligent as Sergeant Michaels. From the discussions with the Sergeant over the last week, Collut learned Michaels was planning on completing an engineering degree once he left the Army. If this was the kind of people they used for NCOs, what were their officers like?