Battleship Destroyer Read Online Free Page A

upgraded in short order. Jack getting the jobs of hauling the old rusted junk backups out of the ship while the old working power supplies were put into storage just in case they were needed.
    To keep him out of any further trouble, his father had stuffed him in the Grav board trim station that had not had an operator sitting at it since Pop had bought the ship some 30 years before, like a jail sentence for a criminal. It was Jack reading the manuals with a lot of help from Pop that taught himself how to operate the gravcoil station just to keep from dying of boredom.
    E ver since then he had yet to miss a takeoff or landing on the bridge to keep him from destroying anything else. While the whole crew seemed to start treating him different, strangely different after that. Like he had done something terribly wrong and was now responsible for everything else that went wrong on the ship. He was still being blamed five years later and the story told with embellishments as he was pointed out to anyone new boarding the ship before they finished their first meal. He was fair game for punishment by anyone and everyone, anytime with no repercussions from his family. Especially with his brother encouraging the entire ship to participate. So he avoided everyone as much as he could. Taking refuge in playing (The Battleship Crew Simulator Game), in his cabin every chance he got.
    Jack watched the gravity waves ahead lighten and made a minor adjustment to the gravity board as they left the high mountain plateau half of the planet behind. Avoiding that little imperceptible sway in his head most people would have only vaguely notice if they noticed at all. He was even ready when the ship hit the jet stream as he made the adjustments long before the automatic controls could respond, so the passengers did not feel the ship lurch from the 300 mile an hour side wind suddenly hitting the ship. He was even ready as his brother jerked the stick over much too hard to crab into the wind a second too late. Jack making the adjustments before the autograv could. Then again when they left the stream and his brother was late again straightening the ship back up and had to waddle the ship back onto their landing plot line with enough movement, (now that they were deep inside the atmosphere), to make anyone space sick if Jack had not caught and counter acted the side to side, up and down swaying as his brother jerked the ship around. Jack had gotten very good at his job. Though no one felt or had a clue as he played the gravity board like an instrument. Looking out of the bridges viewports at the vague beautiful impressions of clouds of energy swirling around the ship in a dozen different shades and brightness's of color he had no name for that would skew the ship off course, while keeping an eye on his brother stabbing at the ships controls.  He ignored the jumble of harsh comparatively black and white and off colored waves and lines on his screens in front of him showing the pilot's and autopilots control inputs and the ship's sensors attempt to represent the fields outside the ship so humans could see and understand the invisible and respond properly. To Jack, the screens were a half second to slow, even if they could have shown a fraction of everything Jack could see.
    T hey finally dropped down a bit hard into the pit as he flicked his fingers across the gravity board to counter act the sudden 3 gee landing gear flexing stop as they hit the concrete a little fast, straining the landing shocks. Then he faded the ships gravity into the planet's before shutting the grav board down. His cup of tea sitting on the console next to him had never even swayed let alone slopped a drop. The ships felt Gee meter had stayed pegged at 1.000 Gee the whole descent with zero side forces. Satisfied with his job, Jack leaned back and took a breath of satisfaction as he let his mind wind down for a few seconds after the strain. Already planning on getting onto The Game so