Gradually, the engine cones were repaired. It became time to move on to the more difficult work of repairing the steering fins and stabilizers for atmospheric flight. To repair some of the damage to them, we actually had to remove some of the plating around them after breaking through the fused portions with our torches. It was a good thing we did. Over half the wiring that controlled them was likewise melted and fused into small puddles that had solidified on the insides of the plating. To repair the controls to the fins and stabilizers, we had to use the last of our remaining supplies of repair parts and wire.
Finally, after four months of repair work, the ship was once again ready for flight back into space. I think a lesser crew would have given up long ago and either perished in space or not tried to lift off again from the planet we were able to land on. The scaffolding was removed enough that we could launch. Then we all took our places and prayed as Frank started the engines and rechecked the steering before we jetted off with almost as much vigor as we were used to having.
We knew the course and headings which we would have to take to get back home. If nothing else, we knew that we would be paid well for all the time we spent keeping the ship together and returning it, not to mention the bonuses for the pirate ship we recaptured, so to speak. If we returned, we would be entitled to that pay whether the company salvaged the pirate again or not. Considering that we had been gone so long, it wouldn’t have made much sense for the company not to salvage and refit the former Theodore to take our place.
Chapter 4
Evidently a lot can happen in five months as we were to learn. Aside from the Blues, our Navy discovered another alien race, not so human and not so friendly. We were unaware of it as we lifted off. We also didn’t know that we would have to cross a battle zone to get back home. We were only one week away from the planet that we made repairs on when we picked up coded messages from our Navy’s ships. We couldn’t understand what was happening since we weren’t privy to the codes they used. The only thing we did know is that when we tried to send them a message, in case they were looking for us, they replied for us to shut up and get the hell off the combat channel.
We weren’t immediately alarmed since the Navy was known for having frequent war games, much as our company had regular practice each time we lifted off from a planet or mock-battles when a new ship was added and personnel changes had to be made. For that reason, we continued on our course back to Beulah right straight into the combat zone. All the while, coded messages continued to be overheard with regularity.
While we were on the planet making our repairs, I finished the class work from the textdisks. I had the material ready to mail to the Sarge when we returned to Beulah. Without anything else to take up some of my slack time, the messages represented a challenge. Because of my own background, I worked on the messages for the hell of it and sheer curiosity using one of the recreational computers. I didn’t think that I had a chance of breaking the codes, but as luck would have it, I did manage to figure out a few of the words in the messages. That was enough to worry me. I took my findings to Captain Marble as soon as I had something.
“Yes, Dave. You said it was important.”
I said, “Yes, Captain. I’ve been playing around with some of the Navy messages on the computer just to fill my time. I don’t think they’re involved in war games. I think they’re in a real shooting war with someone.”
She looked at me carefully to see if, perhaps, I was trying to pull a joke on her for the amusement of the crew. It wouldn’t have been the first time. Once, the crew hid her clothes while she showered. She threatened to have them all naked if her clothing wasn’t returned. However, she seemed to pick up my sense of urgency or danger. She replied, “Okay. I’ll keep it in mind. Keep me informed if you manage to learn anything more from the messages.”
I replied, “Yes, Captain, I will.”
It was a very short and to the point conversation. I continued to work on the messages during my spare time. Evidently, she kept my warning in mind, putting us on “man your battle stations” when she spotted the signs of firing weapons in the area in front of us the following day.
As we headed into that area, thinking or hoping that it was only a war game, we were all at our gun stations. The ship was secured against breaches in the bulkheads, should it turn out to be for the worst. It was practically the worst as we entered almost directly between the two forces. Our Navy wasn’t getting the best of that particular battle. I later had my own suspicions about why our forces were doing so poorly. I only know that the bridge suddenly announced battle stations, adding, “Fire only at non-Navy ships!” as if they needed to. For the second time during that mission, I was glad that Frank was at the controls. From what I understand, others were glad that I was at the controls of one of the two Mark III quads. We were closer to the alien vessels than any of the Navy ships. Frank jinked us about as he evaded the shots from the aliens at us. We were a complete surprise to them when our ship suddenly sprouted gun ports and the guns we sprouted were heavy weapons within their effective range. I wasn’t at a lack for targets as we swept through the center of the battle, covering the asses of our Navy that was trying to break off the engagement and retreat when we arrived. I doubt that we would have survived, if it hadn’t been for Muriel at the lightbeam radio, communicating with the Navy squadron. She convinced them to wheel about and take advantage of the enemy’s sudden confusion.
We weren’t looking for a fight when we entered into that area of space. Since we were there and it was too late to change our course without being destroyed, we had to fight. My first two shots took out one of the alien ships that was roughly equal to ours in size. Then the rest of the alien fleet, which outnumbered our side’s squadron three to two, began to worry about us instead of the Navy. By then, Frank was really doing his best evasive maneuvers and shooting was quite difficult to do.
It wasn’t that we didn’t have computers helping to keep the guns trained on the enemy ships, but the constant movement and various electronic tricks that each side employed required a human operator to do the actual firing. The radar and computer assistance given to aiming the guns couldn’t aim them at the vital areas. Those only placed the guns on where the bulk of the target was. Despite hundreds of years of computer usage, it still took a person to pick out the key points in order to knock out the target. Even more so when one considers that these were alien vessels. We were aiming based on intuition, something that computers simply don’t have.
Our only advantage in shooting it out with the aliens was that we were passing in front of them. Only a few of their weapons could be aimed at us until we were directly in front of them. Otherwise, they might have hit some of their own ships because of their own battle formation. Before we got directly in front of them, Sam and I managed to each hit a second alien, also equal in size to us, and disable it completely. It dropped behind the advancing alien ships while no more weapons’ fire came from it.
We crossed the worst part with a vibration that shook us enough to let us know we sustained a hit, but damage crews went to their posts and took care of whatever it was. Meanwhile, I was zeroing in on another ship bigger than us and managed to hit the ship four times before it stopped firing and dropped behind. It was the first ship I ever saw rupture apart completely in space. Sam on the other side was having more luck than I was. He picked up a total of three and a half kills to my two and a half. Had any of us known that our job could put us into the Navy whenever called upon, we would have stayed and fought with the fleet against the remaining alien ships. As it was, when we finished crossing between the two forces, our Navy was once again attacking the aliens head on with an equal number of ships, while we continued on home to Beulah. What would have been a defeat for our Navy became a partial victory, but only because our combat videos couldn’t be ignored and they had to share the credit with us. After all, we went in suddenly and unexpectedly, slaughtered one third of the alien ships, and then left just as suddenly.