Free Rust Bucket by Atk. Butterfly Page B

though we were several days away from it. We had slightly more speed than the enemy vessel had, probably due to better maintenance and the few hits we managed to get on the other ship before it pulled away. Even with our better speed, we weren't catching up to it easily. It was going to be a long chase, I could see. I started letting some of the other gunners take the positions for awhile so that our best gunners could get some rest. I went up to the bridge where the sudden change in our situation had become infectious among everyone there. They were urging the scheduled pilot, who had just relieved Frank of the controls, to do his best to catch up to the last enemy ship. I stood beside the acting Captain who actually smiled for the first time and put his hand on my shoulder in a friendly manner.
    Â Â Â Â Â Â "You were right. We could take them. Will we catch this one?" he asked, no longer afraid.
    Â Â Â Â Â Â I said, "I'd like to see us make it a clean sweep. If we do, then that's one less trick that the enemy will know how to do. Frank, what do you think he'll try to do? Slingshot around a planet?"
    Â Â Â Â Â Â Frank answered, "Yeah, Dave. You thinking about doing it from the other side?"
    Â Â Â Â Â Â "Why not? It works real well on pirates. These aliens aren't any better. Just more of them is all or there were a while ago," I said, getting a lot of smiles from others on the bridge who overheard my comment.
    Â Â Â Â Â Â Frank went over to the pilots and explained the maneuver so that when the enemy ship tried to pull it, whichever of our pilots was at the controls would know what to do. I left the bridge and notified all the gunners about what to expect, reminding them to start shooting the moment they saw the enemy ship in range, no matter what gun station they had.

    ***
    About an hour later, Frank spoke over the communications and said, "He's trying to slingshot away. Get ready, folks!"
    Â Â Â Â Â Â I watched as the man handling my gun station looked back at me as if to give it up. I shook my head and said, "No, you need to have some fun, too. I'll watch."
    Â Â Â Â Â Â He smiled and turned his attention to watching for the enemy ship. We cut across on the other side of the planet and caught the enemy as he was about to slingshot away with greater speed than he otherwise would have been able to manage. I watched with pride as the man I told to have fun managed to hit the enemy vessel squarely on the third shot and watched it rupture suddenly.
    Â Â Â Â Â Â The pilot moved us around the dead enemy hulk and back onto a course for our home port.
    Â Â Â Â Â Â I reported back to the bridge and caught a round of applause from the acting Captain and the rest of the bridge personnel. I felt embarrassed for a moment and quickly recovered with, "Hey, guys! Don't forget, it was a team thing. In fact, I didn't even shoot that last ship. That was one of the gunners from the Avenger." I then walked over to the acting Captain and asked, "Well, what now? You want to go hunting or return to port?"
    Â Â Â Â Â Â For the first time, there was actually some enthusiasm in his face as he contemplated his options. We were successful, no matter that we had lost two ships and left one on another planet. We had accumulated nine kills for the two destroyed ships. That was better than any previous outing. Of course, I knew in the back of my mind that I would probably face a disciplinary proceeding when we got back. I wasn't too anxious to return, even though I knew we couldn't stay out too long with more people on board than we were meant to handle. Unfortunately, I could see that he realized that we had personnel who needed to be returned to port for reassignment, even if we were making good use of them. Plus, some of them were wounded. They really needed better attention than our on board surgeon was giving