Chapter 17

"That is indeed an interesting evolution. I don't recall it being in the manuals."

The speaker was a silver haired distinguished woman who had been introduced as a retired Admiral and was appearing as a talking head on the MBC 'special' of mostly exclusive footage of the wreck of "Titan".

"The release timings and the deceleration have to be spot on and I don't think you can get a 'puter programme to do that as the variables are just too many. No. That had to be done under manual control and you heard what Prince Harold said about the pilots' intense concentration and the constant juggling of controls."

HMS "Naseby" had erupted out of the Junction to the civilian passenger berth. She had barely cleared the Junction when Settlement convulsed with the response of the emergency services. The reporters on their rounds had quickly reacted and before "Naseby" entered the outer harbour, every broadcast transmission was interrupted with the staggering news that RMS (Royal Mail Spaceship) "Titan" had foundered on her maiden voyage from Settlement to New Liege in Harbouria. The reports were that loss of life had been minimal and mainly among the crew.

The Heir was safe and footage of the hullabaloo associated with his boarding was dragged out of archive to fill the gaps as the planet waited spellbound for further details.

The broadcast day was filled with vids of survivors being disembarked from a huge sleek forbidding black warship which had filled the vids as it entered the inner harbour to berth without the assistance of tugs. Later there were also vids of the life boats being towed out of "Naseby's" Boat Bay as she stood off to return to Maureen's Moon.

It appeared as if everybody from "Titan's" Master to the ship's cat was being interviewed. Millions of gigabytes of private PDA vids were sifted through for dramatic 'shots' to titillate the senses of the audience.

The Heir had been quickly whisked off but the demand was so great that the Palace had very, exquisitely, reluctantly allowed an orchestrated interview (with their tremendous knowledge of such thing making it appears just so spontaneous) of fifteen minutes duration. The bombshell of Prince Harold's escapade in escaping from his minders and being strapped into the third seat for a sortie of the shuttle lit the talk shows like a supernova.

The populace was sated and the newsfaxes were beginning to return to normal. MBC announced a special programme was to be shown the next evening of the wrecking of RMS "Titan" captured by a professional team who had been on board during the ill-fated voyage. MBC repeated the teaser at every break in their normal programming right up to broadcast time.

Headmale Shipping had hired a professional vid team to record the maiden voyage of what had been planned to be the flagship of their passenger fleet. The team had included cameramen and assistants experienced in EVA and the plan had been to have sequences utilising their talents. This programme was the result of their coverage of the affair; after all they had watched from the front row seats.

The programme was introduced by the panel of talking heads with a (very) quick resume of events, interspersed with short clips, right from the announcement by Headmale to build the new ship, the launch, the embarkation of Prince Harold and entourage and sequences from the voyage. The scene changed and a view of space across the bow of "Titan" was shown seguing into a simulation of the space junk coming towards and the bow turning futilely away with the impact ripping down the starboard side. The scene of devastation was shown in almost loving detail using several clips. The chaos inside the vessel was shown and the stoic reactions of seasoned spacers to the news that only a quarter of the lifeboats might be available. A quick insert to explain that each side carried enough lifeboats to carry the crew and passengers then a scene showing the Master and his officers being told that the estimate of half the port boats being available would depend if they could be cut out of the warped hull. A deep doom laden voice spelt it out that half of the people aboard were doomed unless help arrived.

The scene shifted to a view of black space with the hull of "Titan" filling the foreground and a voice over announcing that the battlecruiser HMS "Naseby" was coming at full military power but was four hours away. The scene shifted to the teams of spacers attempting to free trapped lifeboats, spacers attempting to control reaction mass and then back to space to see the increasing glow of a crash turnover of a large warship at full power. The glow was well established and the scene shifted to "Titan's" bridge showing an officer staring at a screen depicting in miniature the space shot. The officer continued to stare and then adjusted the controls to cause "Naseby's" return to almost leap out of the screen but showing a small fleck separating from the larger. A worried officer turning to his captain and that worthy peering at the screen also. A third officer called for and she opened an adjacent screen and manipulated controls to show "Titan" and the approaching specks which segued into projected tracks. A worried Master pulling a hand microphone from its holder, muttered instructions given (to the Radio Room?) and then a strong voice

""Naseby", "Titan"; we have that small object on a collision course with us. Can you destroy it?"

""Titan" "Naseby", wait while I switch you to the bridge and my officer says it will be a fulltime link... (the background noise changed) "Titan", Commander Filister, Tactical Officer, that is our assault shuttle "Tangerine". She is coming down your starboard side in a crash turnover. She is executing a close approach (a snort was heard in the background) to save time and we'd appreciate it if you would have passengers ready at your port airlock ready to be embarked. There wont be gravity in the shuttle and my pilots plan to cram as many bodies in as possible. Require your pax to take off their footwear — its going to be crowded; they can stuff their shoes in their shirts if they don't want to lose them. A contingent of Marines will disembark the shuttle to assist you... "Naseby" will heave to a kay klick off your port side and our pinnaces will move out to pick up the free lifeboats. The shuttle will pick up loaded lifeboats as well, bring them over to "Naseby" and return them for refilling. Over"

""Naseby", affirm "Tangerine" has just crossed our stern, but it still looks close, over."

""Titan" (laugh) we have faith in our pilots. "Naseby" out to you."

The scene changed to a passenger disembarkation point where crew were directing female passengers and children to the port companionway with shoes clutched in hands and then to the external scenes of the arriving vessels with white hot shields emitting long plumes of energy. "Naseby" was off to port at a distance where the magnified view was hazy and blurred; not so "Tangerine" - her image was clear and sharp. These scenes were accompanied by a soft string solo, as a distant background. "Tangerine" passed down the starboard side at a distance of no more then two hundred meters and the hard suited figures in chameleon armour could be seen clambering over her hull. The cameraman followed the shuttle, still barely travelling astern, past the bows and then with a burst of power, she stopped and came back down the port side to join hatches.

Scene changed to "Titan's" port air lock showing spacers un-dogging the hatch exposing a couple of burly armoured figures and the cry

"The Navy's here!"

followed by a stern commanding voice

"Remember the "Birkenhead"!"

with about a dozen armoured bodies pushing past the passengers. As the first passengers entered the shuttles no gravity, another marine was seen tossing bodies down the shuttle and then cleverly interposed views of a tumbling shuttle interior taken from several PDAs to another amateur vid of a big man in black armour without helmet casually catching tossed bodies as if so many cases of rations and just as casually stacking the bodies moving forward as the compartment filled. A final view of the marine stepping into "Titan" and black armour with the hatch closing.

The next scene was the exterior of "Titan" with "Tangerine" still joined. Figures on "Tangerine's" hull using winches to haul lifeboats from aft to shackle them to the hull and then dropping the winches back into the hull. Four lifeboats were joined and "Tangerine" departed. The voice over had returned nattering about four hundred and thirty packed into a shuttle designed to carry a Marine company of one hundred and six officers and men.

A jump in time and "Tangerine" reappears to join hatches and have more lifeboats attached.

Shift to the passenger air lock with the voice declaiming in sombre tones that Prince Harold had stayed on board "Tangerine", 'and here you can see him peering around the edge of the cockpit's air lock' with a shot with a highlighted circle about a small face doing as described. A different figure was stacking passengers in the shuttle but the procedure was the same. Air lock hatch closing and the scene changes to two white suited figures carrying camera and equipment jumping from "Titan" to "Tangerine". More droning commentary about intrepid cameramen, "Naseby" looming larger, sudden tumbling of view with recovery at turn over and then with no warning the lifeboats are shown being cast adrift one after the other. Voice stops and dramatic music as the lifeboats pass through a shimmering force field in "Naseby's" hull which the solemn voice informs the listeners is the Boat Bay. "Tangerine" joins hatches with "Naseby" and the marines on the hull are shown in orchestrated chaos shackling life boats to the hull again.

Again a cinematically shortened return to "Titan" and the life boats unshackled and passed to a pinnace which then stands off with another pinnace towing more lifeboats to be attached. More cameramen join the others on the hull with a marine NCO pointing at them to stay where they are and the gesture clearly saying 'get in our way and you are spaced — without a life line'. Scene fades to "Naseby" looming larger in the background and in the foreground a white suited figure on one of the lifeboats. The lifeboats were cut adrift and the lifeboats diminished into the distance heading for the force field. The view continued until the lifeboats passed through the force field. Scene shifts to a hand held view of end of lifeboat in foreground with the lifeboat ahead heading for force field and passing through with the visible end heading for the same fate — the dramatic last view was a close up of the force field. (What it didn't show was the cameraman being wiped off the lifeboat's hull.) The scene shifted abruptly to an inside view from a PDA of a lifeboat coming through the force field into "Naseby's" Boat Bay with a white suited figure spread eagled across the bow.

Now scenes of the handling of the survivors, almost exclusively passengers with a rare spacer who had manned the lifeboats and then later the spacers being rescued. The last scene from "Titan" was the marines tumbling into the shuttle's interior carrying an unconscious Headmale officer who was strapped into a litter and the last man off was the Marine Colour Sergeant. The arrival of the Marines on "Naseby" was shown and four of them were carrying a litter.

Next a scene showing the Boat Bay crowded with survivors huddling in blankets or stretched out on the deck. Lighting dimmed and time phase shots indicated hours passing with the commentary saying the battlecruiser Captain had kept the shuttle at the air lock and the lifeboats shackled to the hull to make the Boat Bay space available. The scene showed two black suited spacers carrying helmets delicately picking their way crossing the Boat Bay. The cameraman headed them off to get full face shots lighted by the glass fronted duty rooms as the spacers moved to a companionway. The suits bore the name "Hobson" and the other "Windsor". The cameraman and the spacers arrived at the companionway with the cameraman stopped by two hard faced deadly stares with the side lighting showing yellow flecks of the four eyes. The spacers continued down the short passage turning down a side opening; the commentary then covered the recalled shots of each face in full glorious detail obtained by a high tech vid camera identifying the men as the shuttle pilots and flashing back in detail to the 'loading' scenes,

"This is T. J. Hobson, 'call me TJ', and this is George Windsor, 'call me 'Morg''; followed by short cameos of rescued passengers and crew recounting some experience involving the two men. The commentary continued that the pilots swapped responsibilities after each complete sortie and each man had putted several serials of lifeboats through the force field.

Faces fade to absolute black screen and returned with views from "Naseby" of a battlecruiser squadron which the voice over identified as being 3rd BC Squadron at Maureen's Moon and "Tangerine" detaching from "Naseby" accompanied by the information that the Captain had not wished to risk his shuttle attached to the hull through the Junction and that she was temporarily joining the flagship HMS "Napier".

The voyage into the utter blackness of the Junction was captured (somehow) and almost instantaneously the bursting into full glare of sunlight with the commentary that this was a rare occasion of a vidding of the passage of a ship through the Junction.

The (short) remainder of the vid was of "Naseby's" arrival and disembarkation of "Titan's" survivors.

Then the talking heads got into it.

"There is just so much in that" from the moderator "let's go through it from the start. The decision to build "Titan"?"

"Justifiable" from the Shipping Reporter of the "Weekly Blogs", "heavy demand on that route..."