What had happened on the bridgehad no effect on the rest of the ship. Kowalski’s reaction was simulated, aswere the bridge explosions, but with such an intense reality that it was almostimpossible to believe that it was not real.
“What was I supposed to do?”Giacomo asked helplessly, his pounding heart returning to normal.
“What could you have done?” Johnrepeated slowly. He sat on the corner of Gillespie’s console, allowing Giacomoto keep the captain’s chair. He looked around to the crew. “Any suggestions?”he asked hopefully.
“Yes, blow up someone else’sconsole!” McReidy shot back.
There was silence while everyonethought of a proper response.
“Send out a distress signal?”offered Ensign North from communications.
“Are you asking me or tellingme?” John wanted to know. “You won’t have time to hesitate.”
“Try to make contact and talk ourway out of it,” suggested Hartford.
“That might be all right foryou,” Giacomo was defensive. “You could outtalk a Meropian.”
“Settle down.” John could feelthe tension rising. “You’ll all get your own turn. Right now, I want you towork together.”
“Move a lot quicker,” wasMcReidy’s answer. “Once the shields are down, you’re a sitting duck.”
“True, but I was watching. Don’tanticipate orders.”
“But we had to move. We’d havebeen killed.”
“That was Giacomo’s decision, notyours. You start anticipating my orders and you’ll be the one who gets uskilled.” John’s tone was more abrupt than he intended. It silenced the crew. He turned back to Giacomo. “Mister Gillespie gave you a clue.”
Giacomo was still silent, hisface twisted slightly as he tried to figure it out.
“He told you the alien ship hadmoved. How did he know it?”
McReidy was about to answer whenJohn raised a hand and silenced her. “Hartford…? North…?”
Neither of them knew.
Giacomo’s face screwed up asthough he should have known.
“Gillespie,” John continued.
“All engines and weapons emit aunique signal that can be tracked by communications, or even engineering if thebridge is destroyed –”
“McReidy.”
“With the helm destroyed, theship can still be flown from engineering,” she finished.
“Always know the status of yourship.” John’s tone was not condemning. The simulations were to learn from. “Shields went down. A good engineer will only tell you what’s wrong, notwhat’s right. Kowalski is a good engineer.”
“So, what is the correct answer?”Giacomo asked.
“I don’t know. These are Canberra’s simulations, not mine. The result depends on your actions. I only substitutedtheir vitals for ours.”
“Well… what would you have done?”Giacomo wanted to know.
John had no hesitation. “Outgunned, shields failing, nearest starbase out of range… I’d have run forit.”
“He who fights and runs away –”began Gillespie.
“Lives to fight tomorrow,” Johnfinished. “Computer, co-ordinates of simulation on screen.”
The screen showed as before, onlythe alien ship was missing.
“Do you know where you are?” Johnasked Giacomo.
“Yes.”
“Move image ten degrees port.”
The computer complied.
“There’s an asteroid field!” Giacomo shouldn’t have been surprised; it was vaguely familiar. “It’s abouttwo million kilometres away.”
John nodded. “Display alienship. Recognise it?”
“A Sagite cruiser.”
“Correct. Weaknesses?”
Again there was silence.
“It can’t match us for speed,”John answered his own question. “Now get out of my chair.”
Giacomo moved quickly.
John took his chair. Somethingwas troubling him and he allowed his thoughts to wander. It was somethingabout Canberra, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on it. McReidyinterrupted him. She was getting good at that.
“Can I make a request?” She wasback at navigation, having given the helm to Giacomo.
“What is it?”
“During that simulation, the helmwas slow to react. I found it difficult to manoeuvre. Is that normal, becauseif it is –?”
“I know. I’ve got it on mylist. It takes a bit of handling at the best of times.”
McReidy turned back to herconsole.
“I’m sorry,” Giacomo whispered. “I didn’t mean for anyone to get hurt.”
“It’s okay. I just landed a bitawkwardly,” she whispered back.
They need not have worried aboutwhispering. John’s thoughts were far away – back to Canberra. There wassomething he had noticed when he substituted Bismarck’s details into the battleprogram. Canberra was bigger, she had more firepower – at this stage almostanything had more firepower. She carried a large number of fighters, herspeed… That was it! She was slower. She had a maximum speed of almost tenper cent less than Bismarck; yet he knew she was not the slowest ship in thefleet.
He had never thought about itbefore but now he wondered why Bismarck was so fast. The engine overhaul hadincreased efficiency, but only a negligible increase in speed. It suddenlyoccurred to him that it must have been Captain Decker’s doing. He had alwaysbelieved the ship deserved better; that she had never been allowed her fullpotential.
Subconsciously, John had alreadytaken on that job. Given enough time Bismarck would reach that potential – thebest ship in the fleet. And she would need the best crew to run her.
* * *
Canberra had an extensive list ofsimulations, ranging from single to multiple attacks, hostage and ambushsituations – almost every confrontation that could be thought of. All bridgecrew were given the opportunity to command, the situations picked at random.
McReidy aced her first test. Gillespie took a couple of tries before succeeding, as did Tan. Even Humphrieseventually managed to score a win. Giacomo froze every time. No matter how heprepared himself, how many solutions he came up with, he always froze at thevital moment. John didn’t push him; he wasn’t worried.
Simulations were run for allother shifts. Even though he could have delegated someone else, John wasalways present at the simulations. He kept careful watch. Sometimes, the crewinvolved were not aware of his presence unless he chose to reveal it.
He found faults in theirperformances. Some had become slack in their duties. Gillespie had failedonce because of incorrect information given to him. It seemed the crew neededas much of an overhaul as the ship. He was working them hard; he knew that. Somehow he couldn’t slacken off. Not yet.
Ensign Wright was givingextensive weapons lectures. The torpedo Gillespie had acquired had been pulledapart. Most of the crew were not familiar with it; the engineers felt theycould build them in their sleep. That was their next task.
Bismarck needed a completeupgrade. It would take
