Chapter 42

TJ III was introduced to his grandfather and made to apologise by his grandmother for the observations previously made — apology was as sincere as his memory of it - which wasn't long.

Berryl then took him up to a room and told him it was to be his. III looked around, simply said "Too big" and walked out. Berryl did a quick recollection of what information she had about III — the FTL had run, not hot, as information was sparse, but everything known about III was in Berryl's memory banks — and followed III as he literally inspected every nook and cranny in the residence; she joined him as he sat, deep in thought, on the stairs to the upper floors. Unbeknownst to them, they had been joined by II's familiar(?) who decided to add his two credits worth,

{He wants something small and safe; near you Berryl — he knows you will protect him; but just in case wants access to an escape hole; once that is available he then wants water, food, warmth and comfort in that... }

III's reaction was only to gaze at the fluff ball sitting on the balustrade. Berryl's reaction was flight or fight and the spider had to leap up the hand rail to avoid the crushing hand. II caught the emotions, deserted his father to retrieve the situation, calmed his mother and assured his escort that she was safe. TJ II gathered up his son, allowed his friend to sit on the other shoulder, politely requested his mother to join her husband and son in the den where all would be explained.

Thomas Jefferson had been startled by his son's exit but reassured by his

"I'll be right back",

but was ... not surprised, curious rather, upon the return of the foursome, totally unaware of the fourth until after his son sat down with grandson on his lap and saw with some fright, said grandson retrieve a very large arachnid from his son's shoulder and heard a plaintive voice in his head,

{Will everyone please calm themselves?}

"I am calm" protested III "its those two making my head hurt."

While III and the fluff ball communed, II made the explanations and then survived the cross-examination.

{III lets me into his head.

You three have got barriers that prevent my reading your heads but you can 'hear me'. If contact had not been made with the colony, III's mind would have naturally developed the same barriers.

He is not exactly frightened but rather wary. His memories are of turmoil and change. His only memory anchor is of his mother and he somehow knows she is gone. He wants to have an anchor but is distrustful even if he does not know the word...

He wants the space under the stairs as his personal space.}

III's grandparents' reactions were accepting and each began to make plans.

{No, please, a portable light, a cot with blankets and a porta-potty is all he wants. At this point! As he learns to trust you and become accustomed to the stability, the situation will change — to your minds, improve.}

"Suits?" Berryl asked, received acknowledge from her husband and went on "but he must have more clothing. I've got TJ's cot somewhere and that will fit although the boy will have to climb in over the end.

Come on ... there are too many "TJs" in this house and I will not call my grandson a number..."

{Simmo. He says the people at the kindergarden called him "Simmo".}

"Suits. Come on Simmo, lets find that cot."

Simmo held the spider up to his father's shoulder and as it quickly leapt off his hand, followed Berryl.

"Having one of those, would certainly make life easier" TJ Snr remarked and TJ II agreed.

(Berryl had another interest in life as she recalled her parenting skills and her husband was able to experience all those events he missed in the raising of his son. He was never sure if he came out on the plus side but did admit that the experience did have its points even if sharpened.)

...

Harbours and Space organised an examination session out of cycle because of the number of candidates available.

The examiners were intrigued by the relationship between Lightoller and the Sundowners (previously Tulips) and understood the need for certification with the only certified bridge officer departing. The written exam and signed certificates from the Master and Chief Engineer were collated. Gillard, Hobson, Windsor and Cahlewis were granted "All tonnage All space" Masters' tickets. Bolem was granted an "All tonnage All Engines" Senior Watchkeeper's ticket.

The examiners had reservations about the actual level of experience of the Tulip's lower decks and bluntly informed the group of this pointing out that the lower decks had no log books establishing experience; the examiners, on the basis of the Master's and Chief's recommendations were willing to be convinced by practical demonstration. Initially, 737 was used to demonstrate ship handling and then "Sundowner" became the test vehicle.

The weakness of the previous lower decks was their spatial navigation; they had all obtained seventy to eighty percent but the pass was ninety percent; it was pointed out that Naval navigation instruction was a six months full time course. The ex enlisted ranks were awarded "All tonnage Solar System" Masters' tickets and "All Tonnage All space" Mate's tickets to be upgraded on certification of experience as watch keepers by log book and satisfying the examiners in the written.

Some disappointment was felt — until Colin Bolem put the situation — yesterday they were enlisted deck apes, today they are officer deck apes with the promise that with more time in grade they can be Master Deck Apes.

...

Charles Herbert Lightoller XIV was dined out in New Harriers with the trainees acting as stewards — a time of some sadness as friends moved on.

Abraham Galbraith organised the changes to the Sundowner Corporation documentation with deletion of the name of Lightoller from the register and the addition of the five Windsor Women.

...

Orville had completed the access ways, positioning one on either side of the rear bulkhead air lock. The trainees were instructed in their use while the Sundowners sweated their examinations.

The better trainees were then detailed to instruct the Sundowners in the use of the access ways while Orville was able to concentrate on removing the surplus antennae from the hull.

The trainees approached Clare — could they use B deck as a playing field in addition to the gym on E deck accepting that a charter had priority. Clare agreed as enquiries for convention charters had not been overwhelming.

...

Admiral Strathlawn, USN, had held a watching brief on his son and when it became evident that the hassle of the examinations was past, he requested a conference between the USN and the Sundowners — all ranks — to discuss the recent charter; when ever it was convenient for the crew, of course.

"Sundowner" was berthed out in the harbour — saving berthing fees.

D deck was empty and the USN party requested they be allowed to bunk there (they would provide their own quartering) and move to E deck for the conference.

Father and son had talked about the conference without going into detail and TJ reported to the Sundowners that a full debrief was planned.

What TJ wasn't told was that one, Captain Percy Gantry USN, had made a full report to the full staff of the USN and humungous bumps of curiosity were developing.

What TJ didn't tell his father was that the Sundowners had talked about events and had developed their story and rehearsed it — Dune was the same as the Denholt system of tuning the vessel to its shield; Defensive shield was a multi layer standard shield using old model generators which fluctuated. The missiles and the scouts were all standard equipment and it was just that no one had assembled them into one package; power plants were commercially available; RMN had been planning hollow cored DNs for years and they should now be in service and anti missiles were a natural extension of missiles but were still on the drawing board. FTL wasn't mentioned as it was inherent in the mother boards of the com units which were manufactured on Gorgipest for the RMN.

Well before oh dark thirty, a USN shuttle locked onto D deck and disgorged matelots who quickly established a temporary Puzzle Palace with personnel cabins. That shuttle had barely cleared being replaced by another disgorging USN brass. The Master Chief Caterer had his priorities straight — he had a humungous coffee urn percolating from lift off and a spacer familiar with D deck to get it immediately connected to power; the brass clustered about the life support restoring blood caffeine severely depleted by the early voyage. The brass collected camp stools and clustered about in groups gradually regaining focus. The breakfast was munched on — to the disgust of the Caterer — any meal was one to be appreciated.

The Caterer led the way to the access way — he desired to discuss matters of mutual interest with Second Officer Windsor and his female kin.

The engineer brass were totally distracted by the HLRV equipment in the machine shop and spent the rest of the day fiddling with (er ... inspecting?) individual favourite machines.

It was no better for the specialist officers — they clustered about the areas of their interest questioning every Sundowner who came within arm's reach. The USN deck apes were at a loss for only the briefest time until Clare (ever so innocently) mentioned 737 was in the starboard boat bay and led a party to inspect her while nattering on about the modifications made to her especially the newer engines.

Percy Gantry watched with amusement the disintegration of the group. He joined Cedric and a few of the crew in the mess and generally chatted on about the exams and sundry other trivial matters. Percy enjoyed his lunch and as he strolled about the middle deck, he found that Cedric had been persuaded to accompany a group of gunnery and of missile officers to the forepeak to discuss the armaments there.

Cedric shocked his listeners by flatly stating that the weaponry in the forepeak was obsolete.

Beam weapons were relegated to short range engagements and then got into a discussion of how the engagement envelopes had opened tremendously with the development of missiles which themselves had become obsolete as individual projectiles with the development of effective defensive shields.

The EW people had tacked themselves onto this group and were curious about "Sundowner's" defensive shields and were shocked to hear that Cedric had deliberately searched for obsolete generators which were no longer produced to provide shielding for "Sundowner". Cedric answered the critics by pointing out that an RHN BC missile salvo had failed to penetrate and those generators produced a sphere of protection and not just two curved walls which were not allowed to touch for fear of catastrophic energy release. The reason for the strength of "Sundowner's" shields was the reason the generators had been discarded — they fluctuated at extremely high frequency thus allowing overlaps of coverage without contact. A beam was excluded by layering as well as overlapping. Very high power output was required but, hey, the other bloke was firing beam and missile intending to put you out of business, permanently. Even higher outputs would be needed to cope with missile clusters.

Cedric went on to discuss the RMN development of hollow cored DNs which would soon be firing not salvos of missiles but salvos of clusters of missiles. Each cluster would have EW missiles in the suite and all would be manoeuvrable with control exercised by the firing ship using the battle 'puter's resources — he conveniently forgot to mention that FTL was critical to control at the proposed longest ranges but these people were smart and they would figure out the problems and possibly even the solutions.

It was left to Janice Dawson and Jane Foster to discuss the Lone Ranger scouts as TJ was spending time with his son and Morg was enthusiastically discussing things of major importance with the Master Chief Caterer. With a perfectly straight face, Janice recounted how the slab sided scouts had been built in the entrance hall of the Windsor residence in Gorgipest and then towed about the orbital harbour by a barge for its test runs. Jane pointed out that making the body cylindrical would have considerably decreased the volume of the vessel — strength was not a significant factor as the vessel was open to vacuum with only certain equipment needing to be in atmospheric sealed containers. "Sundowner's" external vids were used to show the viewers the various points. Neither tech could comment on any plans to further weapon the scout and allowed the discussion to rage among the others as to feasibility or necessity. Jane did dampen the heat for a short time by saying that the Sundowners were investigating a missile cluster.