Astra Pt. 06

She rolled her eyes, "What is that for some superweapon?"

He shook his head and showed her the animated design with the animation sequence of the ship traveling from Terra to Tau Ceti."

She looked at it, "A Wormhole Drive. I am going to be the first Chief Engineer to work on a Wormhole Drive?"

He shook his head, "No you will be the first Lieutenant Commander of Engineering. You will have Chief engineers for power, shields, engines, Axillary systems, structural, and weapons. You will direct them all on both sections of my ship. That is 12 chief engineers reporting to you with a new command station on the bridge.

Where you will monitor every activity and be able to provide me answers when we are in a jump and in battle. Else you will be asleep or doing engineering things across both sections. You will always be with the battleship when we separate. You must have faith in the crews under you. 2 crews. 1 for my command ship and 1 for my Dreadnaught.

Not the Dreadnaught here. The one being built. It has a second Wormhole Drive on it that is even larger. You will be working on and control Engineering on a battleship and the first one used on a dreadnaught. To the men and women of Engineering, you can refer to her as Master Chief. Once you get to work on getting my systems functional so we can test the new shield generators and power transfer units.

She looked at him, "Nothing comes into Engineering without me seeing the designs on it."

He smiled and showed her the designs while she got everyone cracking on doing the installation. He looked at it, "If I am a Master Engineer you are the Grand Master Engineer. I could never have thought of those shields. We will be testing them soon?"

He nodded and looked at the installation, "Soon is debatable."

She took the hint and got back to work. He told her, "You work directly for me, you will report to both Ship Commanders and me on all activity. You do not have to go through a commander to report any engineering issues. I want to hear from the one turning the wrenches, watching the state of things, ensure they are all fueled at capacity while we are stopped, and checking the hulls. We are stopped right now. Good time to ensure we are fully fueled."

She nodded, "You want to do an energy consumption test as well on these new shields."

He nodded, "Same will occur when we do the Engine testing. You will be in dry dock for several days overseeing the refit and getting a crew together to add in some additional equipment to my lab. I now have space to grow!"

She shook her head laughing, "Of course Admiral and thank you for the promotion."

He smiled, "You earned it. We will be doing a couple of 'test jumps' with the Wormhole Drive in the system. Before going to Tau Ceti."

She looked over, "You are going to jump Systems!"

Jack smiled, "We are going to Master Chief."

She smiled and went to work." Get me a connection with Paul."

He saw Paul's face, "Greeting my friend. We have repairs underway and we will start on this when the slot opens."

Jack nodded, "Then start making these modifications to the Battleships. Hold on all other new construction except for replacements to existing battle groups. Install this software update on the shield systems for all ships, including fighters and shuttles.

Did you look at the second section of those blueprints?"

He looked at it, "You built a new shield? What in the hell is that thing?"

Jack smiled, "Working on it. That 'Thing' will have to be added outside of the space dock. Maybe we can rotate the sides so you could install them one at a time from within from the bottom of a caterpillar dock. Do not start manufacturing those pieces until I give you the word. That is a Wormhole Engine.

I will have one on my command battleship that is retractable. That is why you got the new designs for adding the wider docking feature."

Jack asked, "When will I see those?"

Paul shook his head, "All goes well I will have them installed the first ones on the damaged battleships. Modify the damaged carrier bases while they are here. You will have to have your people do it outside of a dock. You cannot get a carrier base inside the existing docks you got out there."

Jack smiled, "Which is why when the base is done, I will steal 1 or 2 of the Caterpillar II space docks from you. They built all the Terra docks inside of the station bases by design. They used the older design because we never planned to build this big.

We did not until after that attack. These will have to be free-floating space construction platforms like they are there. We will need them to get all the ships for this penal colony ships done.

If I could get it done in a year by using Ceti people to build some of these ships and using the Wormhole Drive to get them here it would help. Get with the Local councils and find out what they would want or need in trade for these docks and support ships to make life easier for them. Anything they want is on the table."

Paul nodded, "I will pass the request back to the council. What of the Brelan?"

Jack smiled, "From that timeline, they have been eliminated. The Drakor caught up with them. They had a Drakor stealth scout ship that got caught up in their time travel wake if you will. They ended up here. Sending you some video."

He watched as the battleship slammed into the scout. Paul shook his head, "You used the asteroid field to destroy their ships?"

Jack smiled, "199 of them. The Drakor killed number 200 when they arrived to assist in rescuing their kin. I sent a message to Justice. He should have made a stop in the system and then left after surveying?"

He nodded, "You slammed into their scout, rescued it out of the field and got it back to the Drakor for them?"

Jack nodded, "It was the right thing to do. I know what it is like to be sucked through time against your will."

Paul laughed, "You keep finding their wayward ships. This new drive will let you get here how much quicker?"

Jack smiled, "Theoretically, near instantaneously. It can only be powered by a hybrid, powerful hybrid."

Paul looked and laughed, "Right now that is you. Nobody is near as powerful as you in our group."

Jack nodded, "I will still need to draw power from other hybrids. The more powerful the better."

He nodded, "Can you go anywhere?"

He smiled, "Anywhere I have been."

He nodded, "You lead a colony to another location you could travel there."

Jack nodded, "Or another Hybrid does and I use him to funnel the location to me and then we work the jump together. Eventually, we could be able to jump to any location where any of us have been. The Drakor can get to anywhere we have been or at. They have done these with me over those shuttles. I got to go they are almost done."

Jack looked down and she smiled, "In and operational."

She nodded. "Come with me, Master Chief."

She smiled, "Thank you again for the faith in me."

He nodded, "I have been asked about my crew makeup and how many of my children are in senior positions. Quite a few aboard these two ships because we brought so many of our children.

I plan on shuffling squadrons around and some of the command officers but I want you here. Some will be getting promotions or put in command of ships that must be replaced. I got to assign a new wing commander after the loss of my son. I will likely pick up one of the 20-year-old pilots who is a hotshot.

He flies with my other son. He is a top dog and it helps to show skill is being rewarded on these ships. I have a lot of skilled sons and daughters but there are others that are just as skilled and some that are more determined and tenacious."

She smiled, "Any other reason?"

He smiled, "Rumor has it you are hot for Zack and he will not fraternize with the enlisted ranks because of the appearance of impropriety in our military setting. We have no hard and fast rule so long as favors and promotions do not get attached to it. I am promoting you because you have proved to be a very capable engineer. I might even bring you in as a research assistant. Show you the process by which I do things."

She nodded, "I would like that." He talked with her in the elevator up and looked at her, "You have expressed no direct thoughts on becoming a hybrid. Is that something that interests you?"

Her eyes went big, "I did not know you would consider an engineer. Not outside your family for that. I would be honored."

He nodded, "You know the sword?"

She nodded, "Yes I like the katana and you inspired me to start with Iaido and have been working a few others. Dan 6 according to Aiko."

He nodded and smiled, "He walked on the bridge, "Zack, my ready room, Master Chief with me."

He walked them into the room and Zack looked at her, "Master Chief?"

She explained he made her a Lieutenant Commander on the bridge and she would be manning a new station to work with all of the new Chief Engineers on both parts of his dreadnaught including the Wormhole Drives he planned to install.

He nodded, "Impressive."

Jack looked at him, "Later today I want you to make her a hybrid. I extended the offer and she accepted."

He nodded, "It would be my honor. The first one you have asked me to do."

He nodded, "If Grace has not done the twins yet you could be in bed for a few days in order to get all three back."

He nodded, "Understood."

He smiled, "Now maybe you can work your way into seeing this woman has been hot for you for a while and you should remove your head from ass and take a look around at your personal life."

He nodded, "I want a few wives. Astra was working on setting up a meeting with a couple of potentials."

He nodded, "If that is the case hold off and you take the Master Chief with you. If she is into women as well?"

The Master Chief smiled, "Personal question? Yes, I have spent some time with a few ladies in my time. I have no issue with that. I have seen your family photos from the nude beach. Everyone has I believe. I know he and all of your sons could satisfy. You are built to wreck a woman. I think that is why all your wives are hybrids."

Jack sighed, "I lost 2 who were not. I lost 14 when I was taken from my timeline. You get the idea. I made it a requirement this time around. I want them with me for longer and having better reflexes and the ability to defend themselves is important to me. That and they last longer in bed when I wreck them all into nirvana in every hole."

She nodded, "Got it. Do not ask about your sex life."

Zack looked at her, "You saw that wedding video they recovered."

She nodded, "Others pointed it out. Must be 30,000 hits on that video from this ship alone. They all know you're a stud Admiral."

He laughed, "Katlyn, she is from Ireland and a new wife. She calls me a big OX."

She laughed as they walked on the bridge, "Shields up." She looked, "I am now showing three shields."

He nodded, "They are running off 8-200 terawatts power cores. We got some shield testing to do. First fire a laser weapon." She watched the fire and he looked, "The third shield, drop intensity by 15%. Fire again." He watched it. "Set that as calibrated for now."

She nodded, "The other shield is showing a frequency?"

He nodded, "Fire a railgun. He fired it and it did get stopped at the shields. She looked over her shields, "I am showing a 22% drop in shields.

He nodded, "Fire all forward lasers."

She looked "All shields gained 2%" he looked, over, "Your interface, bottom left corner." She hit it, "Second-page display Select the option for the lab. Check your percentages." She looked, "It lists them on this page as well and the shields are recharging as double normal speed."

He looked, "Engines hit that one. She looked about 2.5 times faster. Our shields are at full. He looked. "Turn those two off."

She nodded as he spoke, "We go into combat there might be a reason to shunt more power to the engines, weapons, or shields. We will be doing a weapons upgrade on the rail gun. Disable middle shied. "She did it and he looked, "Fire rail gun." He fired it off and it went through. "We tag the ammo at the frequency of the second shield.

They will charge and sync and if they just fired it will go into a cooldown period. Our shields are absorbing some of the power from our weapons right now. That was the increase you noticed. We will increase weapon power to compensate and if they do manage to bring our shields down, we will hit them that much harder."

She nodded. "Activate the second shield. We are done with testing here. Get us yo Terra and get Haruna on the comms."

He looked up and saw Ash in the chair. She frowned, "You stopped. We were about to come out and check on the why. Your communications officer said you were installing something in engineering?"

He nodded, "Yes we got a live-fire test to do in front of Terra- 12. I will be at Terra 12 you be ready to fire on this ship when ordered too."

She sighed, "Improvement to the shields?"

He shook his head, "Replaced them with a new design."

She smiled, "Significant increase?"

He nodded, "Correct."

He got closer to Terra-12 and got contacted by the President, "I am watching your ship come in and it looks like it has had the hell beat out of it."

He nodded, "Rammed a scout. Undock us Commander Drop middle shield so it can get out and have them move off. I am glad you are watching this. I wanted you to witness this."

Polly who worked at the shields looked up, "We gained power by dropping the base." He nodded, "Bring middle shield back online. Expected we are not surrounding as much."

He took the ship out and put it sideways, "Towers this is Admiral Jack Travus. Clear traffic away from the two Katana Battleships as we are doing a live-fire test."

He heard back from Terra-12, "Stopping all traffic in this area." He watched the base move off, "Give us one heavy laser." She fired and the girl looked over, "Not even a fraction of a percent."

Jack called out, "One Rail gun" She sighed and fired it and it stopped at the shield. Ash jumped up, "What did you do?"

He looked at the girl, "What percentage? She smiled, "90% on all shields."

He called over, "All forward laser batteries?" She fired all batteries and he looked over, "We are at 65% shields. He nodded, "Activate the rechargers." She nodded, minutes later she commented again, "We are at 90%."

Ash shook her head, "You increased the recharge rate as well?"

Jack smile and another 20 minutes she smiled, "100% disconnecting rechargers."

He nodded, "Good."

He looked over, "Fire all forward batteries including the dreadnaught." Ash sighed, "She fired it all the shields came down and one laser and one railgun hit the hull. "Shields dropped but we had to be hit by everything on the battleship and dreadnaught configuration. They got one laser and one railgun through. Recharge shields. End of live-fire.

Readout numbers until it is back at 100%."

He looked at the President, "Balance between the sword and shield." He chuckled, You improved the shield!"

Jack smiled, "I improve the base shield and incorporate two others. I have to test an upgrade to one of my railguns to see how that goes."

The President shook his head, "What brought this on?"

He smiled, "A lot of things. I did not like how fast they failed against these new rail guns. So I created something to fix that."

He sent him his concept paper, "Not to be shared."

He looked it over and shook his head, "You really are a wizard at inventions."

Jack nodded, "We will be in drydock for several days. If your wife wants to check out the damage, we will be docking in the Haruna space dock as we have to make repairs to the other base to allow it to expand again."

He nodded, "I just spoke with her and she is really wanting to see that ship up close after that battle. When can I expect to see you?"

Jack sighed, "Give me a day or two. When I bring your wife home. I have children to mourn; some time with my wives."

He nodded, "Very reasonable request. I was told you lost 13 children?"

He nodded, "I do not even have the list of names except for 2. Isabella, Danyelle's daughter, and Sprits eldest son Martin, the first child she has lost."

He nodded, "Take your time. My wife will let you know when she is ready to come home."

He smiled and nodded. Ended the call he contacted Grace who sighed, "Impressive upgrade, now park that thing."

He laughed, "You heard her commander get us into drydock. I will meet with the wives on our base. If you want to bring the First Lady that is fine. She wanted to see the battle damage. Take her around the exterior of our base and then bring her to the drydock."

She smiled, "Other way around. We are at the drydock. We will look at it when you get us back!"

He chuckled, "I have to borrow the other battleship to get us back at the moment so I guess all the wives need to come to that station already."

She smiled, "Good because they are already here."

He chuckled, "Astra, I want you to put together the 3 battles that occurred, list the names of those who died from the assault with ages. Narrate the events as they unfolded. 20 more ships arriving, 60 ships arriving.

200 hundred ships moving as groups of 40. Explain the tactic we used and let them know we had used it once before on the battleship that attacked us during engine testing. That was why I waited until they were in the corridor and used 3 ships to strike from above and at an angle to the corridor. The fact you synchronized the jumps into FTL in order for us to cross the plane at the same time.

When you get to the crash on the scout. Let them know a Drakor scout ship got jumped in with one of the groups by accident. They were from a different timeline. but it was in stealth mode until right before we smashed into it. That is what damaged the nose of my ship.

Show my external camera footage of pulling the scout free and getting it back to the Drakor. He told me in his timeline man appeared to be on the verge of killing themselves. I would hope we will do better in our new future."

She sighed, "I will take care of that and have the wives look it over. I know the deaths are eating you up and you need time with the wives to deal with it."

He sighed as Grace yelled, "Get out here now!"

Jack walked down to the docking ring and was met by all his wives and the First Lady. He grabbed Sprits first and hugged her tightly.

He held her off the ground as she cried into his shoulder. He cried with her for a good 10 minutes before the process was repeated and the mothers whispered the names of the children they lost together. Every mother lost a child. He finished the gauntlet of wives and waved Pela and Velma forward.

He hugged them both and whispered into their ears, "Someday, not far off, this is likely to happen to some of your children. The loss of several but you could have hundreds of children. Those losses will still be there.

It is up to the mothers to keep the tolls on the children. I get to know and work with them all training some in the sword. Hold them when they are young. But I will likely never be there for them every day. So many children and they all eat away at me when they die. Even those done through the insemination.

I mourned them with Astra. She is the one who passed the sperm onto the mothers. She is the one that helped to create those lives. That is close to 2,900 children I sired that have been killed. Most to find a way to kill me. That eats at me. Because even though I never knew them, I was never there to protect them; in any fashion. I feel responsible for those parents that this happened to their children."

They both hugged him and cried for him. Pela whispered, "We knew the risks after seeing what happened to the Excalibur. We knew there was a chance this could happen. We also knew we could find happiness with you. You could fill are carnal needs if you will. But that you could love us both."