I replied, “Yes sir. I won’t show him any. Well, Majel, how would you like to play with a cruiser?”
I watched her eyes light up as she realized she would get to command for a short while one of the largest ships in the Navy. Only the heavy cruisers were bigger.
We left shortly afterwards for the base where the 9th Squadron was stationed. We had to be flown to the station. We took all the personnel records with us that time. The Admiral gave us a few personnel to assist with moving the records and for returning them. I spent some time looking at the records while in transit. I had a head start on what needed to be done.
Upon our arrival, we found the entire squadron waiting in formation for us. I went ahead and used the formation to my advantage to introduce myself and my objectives in no uneven terms. A few minutes later, I inspected their ships while their captains accompanied me as I crawled into recesses that looked like no one had checked them since the ship was built. I explored crannies, nooks, storage closets, gun stations, engine rooms, bridges, and anyplace else on the ship I could get into. When we finished, they each had lists to turn over to their First Officers for maintenance. Then they accompanied me to the recreational hall where we set up the personnel records and went through them.
The following day, the ships were being repaired while I went over tactics with the officers and pilots. As much as I wanted to get into space on the bridge of a heavy cruiser, tactics was more important. It was the reason for my being with them. With the addition of scouts, I found that I had a class of ship that I hadn’t used before nor made any provisions for in my training program.
The scouts were essentially four person ships consisting of a single officer, pilot, and two gunners. They were very short range and relied on having heavy cruiser support for deep space voyages. The officer handled the navigation, sensors, and communications, as well as giving orders to the pilot and gunners. If nothing else, the scouts were extremely fast, but lightly armed, having only a pair of Mark II singles. I looked over their capabilities and realized that there was more use for them than they had been used for. I worked on a plan that would soon put them to good use for more than just scouting.
Within a few days, the ships were all up to my standards. The officers and crews had been given training on what I expected them to do in a battle. It was time to take the squadron up for some drills and mock charges. The squadron went up and every ship, including the scouts, practiced all the drills and tactics.
Getting a larger squadron to scramble was quite a task in itself. In fact, the only way the members of the squadron managed to do it at night in five minutes or less was to take my advice and run like hell for the ships no matter how they were or weren’t dressed. The only ships presenting a problem for that was the scouts since they didn’t have the room inside for anyone to move around or dress themselves in. They would have to wait until they docked in space with the heavy cruiser before they could. However, they were able to launch far quicker than anyone else, so I segregated them far away enough from the other ships where they could launch as soon as their personnel were aboard. They would be able to either wait for the rest of the squadron in orbit or start out on their mission. Most of the scouts were soon launching within three minutes. I felt that was an accomplishment of sorts despite the fact that most of their personnel were stark naked or nearly so.
After two weeks, we began going on patrols and practicing some of the new tactics especially created to take advantage of having the fast scouts. We didn’t manage to encounter any enemy ships to practice on, so I communicated with Headquarters to arrange for us to move about freely to find something to practice on.
Chapter 20
The message that came down from Supreme Headquarters was devastating to me when I read it on the monitor inside the Excalibur’s bridge. The war was over, although it was more of a truce. The Ape-oids sued for peace and a truce was in effect. I had no choice but to recall the 9th Squadron and return to base.
I wondered what my own status would be as we returned back to our port. I held a temporary commission as a Captain in the Navy. I guessed I could become an enlisted member of the Navy, such as Sergeant Clark had. Maybe I’d be kept on board one of the ships, but somehow I doubted it. If I knew the Navy, now that the emergency was over, it would be back to politics as usual.
I was still a paid employee of Pennyweight Shipping Company and an officer there. It seemed to hold more future for me than the Navy. At least they hadn’t missed seeing my talents and availing themselves of them. They had treated me fairly as well. In fact, they had treated me more than fair. However, I was unsure if I would remain an officer when I returned to Pennyweight.
My orders weren’t long in arriving after I got back to the base. I was sitting around with very little to do besides trying to keep the ships in shape before the crews could neglect them in their efforts to celebrate. Three days after we returned to base, my orders arrived. I reported back to the Thurman to return my first ship of command back to Pennyweight.
The Thurman and I, along with the other remaining Pennyweight Shipping Company personnel who were with me, had been deactivated. A number of the repairs made on the Thurman were already rusting over again. The Thurman was looking like a rust bucket again. However, we did get to keep the Mark IV quads the Navy installed to replace some of our weapons lost in action. If nothing else, the Rust Bucket was going back to Pennyweight with more firepower on her than when she left for war.
I took the old familiar Captain’s seat, probably for the last time, I figured, and told Frank to take us home. The trip only took a few minutes to reach our port from the base. Once there, we cleaned up the ship and performed maintenance. When we were finished, I reported to the office to see Penny and report myself as back in for work.
“Captain Oden reporting for work.”
“It’s about time you showed up. How’s the Rust Bucket?” Penny asked.
I replied, “It’s still in great shape despite some hits we took. The Navy repaired and replaced the damage and installed Mark IV quads for the destroyed guns. She has a little bit more aging before she has an even coat of rust again. Anyway, I guess I go back to manning a gun.”
Penny exclaimed, “What? Hell no! When I made you an officer, I meant it! As a matter of fact, you’re going to remain in charge of that Rust Bucket. You’ve matured into a good skipper. I’m sure as hell not wasting your talents on merely manning a gun. You’ll be back on gun ship routes in a few days. Rest up and see me in two days to get the crew list. We’ve got to do some reassignments now that your ship is back.”
I eagerly replied, “Yes ma’am, I mean, yes Penny! I’ll see you in two days. Besides, I have some old friends to look up now that I have the time.”
I left the building and hired a Yellow to take me over to the Academy to see the Sarge. He was just getting off from running a class through their course work. He smiled as I walked in, once again dressed in Pennyweight overslicks. The cloud white shirt and ocean blue pants were easy to recognize.