“Buckley, turn down AI emulation to level five,” Hagai said. The voice cut off. “What in the hell was that all about?”
“Nobody knows,” Leuschner said. “They all say pretty much the same thing on start-up, though. It’s useful for playing games and that’s about it.”
“Damn,” Hagai said, realizing what day it is. “I’m not sure I should have done this.”
“Why?” Leuschner asked.
“It’s Seder,” Hagai said, grumpily. “And now I have to pee, too.”
“I’m not getting the connection,” Leuschner said.
“Unterofficer… No, damn, I can’t even do that… ”
“What is wrong, Schutze?” Leuschner said, rolling over to look at the private.
“To explain that I must explain certain things to do with Hebraic law,” Goldschmidt said, biting his lip. “Perhaps then you can understand my dilemna.”
“You can’t eat pork,” Leuschner said, grinning. “Which sucks because bacon is really good. So is pork sausage. Uhmmm.”
“So I have been told,” Goldschmidt said, frowning. “But today is Seder. The Jewish sabbath.”
“Saturday,” Leuschner said, nodding. “I know that much of Jews.”
“On Seder there are various traditions which I’m not going to go into,” Hagai said. “Mostly because following them is impossible. But the problem is, I cannot operate any device.”
“So what happens if we have to drive into battle on Saturday?” Leuschner asked, his eyes narrowing.
“When it is duty, such things can be ignored,” Hagai said, shrugging. “Also for training. I have not complained even when we were training on Seder. This is duty. The Rabbi assured me that it was not a sin.”
“So… ”
“But this is personal,” Hagai said. “I cannot operate any device. Yes, thinking about it, I should not have started my Buckley up today. I will have to talk to the rabbi about it when I get a chance. But the problem is, I must now go to the bathroom.”
“You can’t unzip your pants?” Leuschner said, grinning.
“Yes, of course I’m allowed to zip my pants,” Hagai said. “But I cannot turn on a light.”
“The lights are automatic,” Leuschner said.
“It is the same things,” Hagai said. “And I cannot let the automatic flush work. It is sin.”
“That is crazy,” Leuschner said. “But the lights in the compartment are on. They came on when we came off duty. Is that a sin?”
“But I didn’t turn them on,” Hagai said, rolling out of his bunk. He had the bottom which in most cases was reserved for higher rank. On ships, though, the higher bunks were prefered. The entry and exit from warp induced a slight queasiness in some people. Being above the occasional spew was considered preferable. “Someone else entered first. I made sure to let someone else enter first so they could turn on the lights.”
“So what are you going to do?” Leuschner asked.
“I’m going to go to the latrine and hope there’s someone already in there.”
Hagai cracked open the hatch to the latrine and saw that the lights were off. Damn!
He waited in the corridor for someone else to enter the compartment, his arms crossed and bouncing in his need to pee. Various troops and NCOs past, some of them raising an eyebrow. Finally, a Feldwebel came along and paused at the door.
“Is there something wrong with the latrine, yellow-shit?” the Feldwebel asked.
“Nein, Feldwebel,” Hagai said, coming to attention and trying not to bounce.
“Then why are you standing here?” the sergeant asked.
“It is… complicated, Feldwebel,” Hagai replied. “But please to enter first.”
The sergeant pushed open the hatch suspiciously and looked around for a possible ambush. When it was apparent the compartment was empty he walked in and headed to one of the stalls.
Hagai darted in behind him and practically ran to a urinal, untabbing his trousers as he did. He let out a long sigh a moment later.
“Schutze, you are acting very strangely,” the Feldwebel said, grunting. “Are you well?”
Some of the SS troops had succumbed to situational stress disorder on the voyage, unable to handle the fact of being in a tin can in outer space. The Feldwebel clearly feared that he was suffering from the ‘raumverruckt,’ space crazy.
“I’m fine now, Feldwebel,” Hagai said then paused. He tabbed up his pants and thought about it hard but there was nothing for it. He backed up and the urinal flushed.
Damn. Another sin. It was hard being a good Jew on a space ship.
He walked to the sink to wash his hands and nearly cursed.
The faucet was automatic…
Maybe he should think about shifting over to Reform. They didn’t have as many rules…
No. His mother would kill him. Or, rather, his mother would kill herself.
He made a mental bet with himself that Frederick was having a pleasure cruise…
“The V-1467 charging system, a generator connected to six C-8438 capacitors via the T-2754 power junction is the primary charging system of the main gun… ” Frederick recited, standing stiffly to attention.
“In the event of failure of the V-1467 charging system, what is the primary response method?” Harz barked.
“By connecting the G-396 generator to the T-2754 power junction using the M-892 power run and an S-487 connector, power to the main gun can be reestablished under field combat conditions. However it is recommended that… ”
“What are the negative effects of using the G-396 generator to power the gun?”
“The G-396 generator is the primary power system for the ground effect drive. The G-396 generator is a generator connected to… ”
“What if we need the ground effect drive and the gun but the V-1467 is out?”
“If the V-1467… ” Frederick said then paused. “I do not recall any portion of the manual that covers that eventuality, Feldwebel.”
“That’s because there’s nothing in the manual, Schutze,” Harz said. “But let us imagine for just a moment that the unit is moving very fast in march order but wants to have the guns up. Because, you know, we are a panzer unit. Perhaps we intend to go directly into battle after we come off ground effect and perhaps, just perhaps, we will need our gun. How would you affect that?”
“The diesel engine, which provides power to all the generators, can run without the G-428 generator,” Frederick said, slowly and carefully. “The only way I can think of to get the whole system to work under those conditions would be to start the engine then disconnect the G-428 and attach it to the gun system. But I’m not sure it would work. The S-487 connector… I don’t think it will fit the G-428… And I’m not sure there is sufficient charging capacity because… ”
“It would take about three times as much time to charge the guns, but it could do it,” Harz said. “Which means that we’d have less rounds we could fire per minute. But we could fire some rounds. Until we died, that is. Or the engine choked out because you ran over an obstacle. Then we’d have to hop out in a hostile environment and try to get everything running again. Not a good position to be in. What is the P-5297?”
Frederick ran through his memorized list of the many parts and pieces of the Leopard and could not for the life of him recall what a P-5297 was. He vaguely recognized it, though. It was there… Wait…
“The P-5297 is… a lifting platform,” Frederick said, frowning. “It is mentioned once in the loading appendix. It is used for short distance movement, primarily in loading and internal ship movement procedures. If, for example, a shuttle has a damaged loading ramp, the P-5297 can be used to move the vehicle vertically then… ”