Battlegroup (StarFight Series Book 2) Read Free Page A

the other decks and personnel of the Lepanto . He’d done it thinking his crew and fellow officers needed to know what was happening, in view of the death of most Command Deck officers. A similar reason led him to share most of what he did on the Bridge with the other ships in the battle group. Like the Lepanto , each of them was being led by a new captain who had forced open the dead captain’s digital safe, found the ship status change code, and given it to the ship’s AI so they could assume full ship control. His close friends Quincy and Kenji had told him that his sharing had reassured crew folks shocked by the sudden change in command. And by the later attack of the wasp-like aliens. The appearance of Joy Jefferson as an image inset in the middle of the planet’s image drew his attention.
    “Lieutenant Jefferson, what’s up?”
    The blue-eyed blond looked anxious. She occupied one of the two seats in the middle of her ship’s Bridge. To her left sat a young woman whom Jacob knew came from Wales. His access to the admiral’s personnel files had helped him learn people names, duties and personal histories. The name of Joy’s new XO was Aelwen Rhydderch. But it was the new captain who captured his attention. She scowled.
    “Captain, that bastard wasp ship is getting away!” Jefferson said quickly. “We killed one of its engines. Let me finish the job! Please, sir.”
    Jacob almost smiled at how the lanky woman had belatedly added ‘please’ to her demand. He had come to appreciate her fight hunger. And the abilities of her destroyer and its crew. Her demand brought back Richard’s issue. “Captain Jefferson, I have decided we will not destroy the departing wasp ship. I have several reasons. But the primary one is it will serve as a test subject for our next cartoon vid effort at opening communications.” He paused, noticed how Rosemary O’Hara at Tactical was playing close attention, and felt renewed amusement. She was another deadly woman. “That ship will take another 40 hours to reach the magnetosphere. Lieutenant Branstead has assured me her algorithm geeks will have a new vid to transmit before then. Be patient.” A thought hit him hard. “Jefferson, if that wasp ship stays in the system, do you think you could track it down?”
    The woman’s disappointed expression moved quickly to eagerness. “Yes! Even if they hide inside a comet their reactors will still send out neutrinos. We can find it. Do we kill it then?”
    Jacob sighed. Where did this long-limbed straw blond get her energy? Maybe the same place Daisy got hers, thinking back to his girlfriend’s intense curiosity and fanatically perfect piloting abilities. “No, you do not kill it.” He looked up at the room’s gray metal ceiling. Yellow light strips crisscrossed it in checkerboard patterns. “Melody,” he called to his ship’s artificial intelligence. “Does the destroyer Philippine Sea have the capability to bring an assault Dart inside its cargohold?”
    A low hum now sounded. “Unlikely. The destroyer’s cargohold access hatch is twelve meters long by six high. A Dart measures twenty meters long by seven high. Entry into the cargohold is not physically possible.”
    Jacob had known the size of the Dart. It was the details of the destroyer’s airlock hatches and cargohold entry that he’d not known. Still, every destroyer in his battle group was a big starship. They measured 300 meters in length. Half the size of a cruiser and one-third the size of a Battlestar. The excited look of Jefferson and Aelwen told him those people were pumped by his idea. “What about attachment to a destroyer’s outer hull? Is that possible?”
    “It is possible,” the AI said, sounding curious as its speech recognition software sought an analogue to Jacob’s voice tone. “The plasma battery on the top of the Philippine Sea lies in the middle of the ship’s hull. A Dart could be attached ahead or behind the battery, to the ship’s sides