Scrapyard Ship by Mark Wayne McGinnis Page A

speechless.
    Scowling, Jason felt like he wanted to punch someone. “So, what’s the latest you’ve heard?”
    Ricket continued on towards the ship. The lieutenant shook his head. “They’ve gone. All four Craing ships lifted off and all but one have left orbit.”
    As they rounded the final corner into the main cavern Jason was surprised to see the crew had assembled into three rows of ten—all standing at attention in front of the ship. Unsure what was expected, Jason brought himself to attention and acknowledged their salute in return. He looked at each one. The crew was a disheveled lot. They were giving it a good try, but it was obvious they lacked any real discipline—several wore a smirk—several others looked generally pissed off. Observing their behavior, Jason wondered what he’d gotten himself into.
    “I’m Lieutenant Commander Jason Reynolds. I’m assuming most of you, if not all of you, know my father, Admiral Perry Reynolds. It seems we’ve been thrown together—and an odd lot we are, yes?” Smiling, Jason looked to his new crew, feeling unsure if a smile was appropriate or not.
    “Everyone, please stand at ease,” Jason said. “The truth is I probably wouldn’t have joined this fight. I had my own battle to contend with. But now the fight is personal. Our planet has been attacked and someone I care about is locked up in the hull of a Craing cruiser. Truth is, all I can think about is getting this thing up in space and chasing them down. So bear with me.” Jason had a fleeting image of Nan being ushered up the gangway of the Craing ship, causing his heart to skip a beat. “From what I understand we’re safe here underground. Though the Craing know we’re near. Let me get situated and then I want to meet with each of you. I’ll come to you, where you are stationed, and you can tell me what you do and a little about yourself.” Jason took one more look through the ranks. “Dismissed.” The group disbanded and went back to their previous duties. Ricket headed off towards the supercomputer-type machines against the wall. Lieutenant Perkins stood with Jason.
    “Sir, may I show you the ship?” The lieutenant asked, with obvious pride.
    “What are we doing here? What’s it going to take to get this ship up in space?” Jason asked, frustrated. The ground shook, muffled explosions reverberated from above off in the distance. Rocks and dirt fell from the cavern walls.
    “As you can tell, the Craing want this ship. But we’ve never fired her weapons, didn’t even know how to access them until recently. We’re not ready. And frankly, neither are you. We go up there now—go up against that warship, The Lilly will be destroyed.”
    Jason took a breath and acknowledged Perkins points with a nod. “All right. So a tour it is. Lead on, Lieutenant,” Jason said.
    Lieutenant Perkins looked to the ship and held his arms out wide as a used-car salesman would when making a pitch. “The Lilly is 125 meters long, in earth measurements, with a width of 75 meters. She has five distinct decks. Her outer hull is coated with a hardened self-repairing substance—it’s similar to other nanotized materials utilized throughout the ship. And there, close to the two primary drive units, are the two fighter bay doors—although all openings, hatches and seams are virtually invisible when closed.” Lieutenant Perkins shrugged. “Something to do with that same nanotized material. The ship has a complement of six one-man fighters available—although one is out of commission.”
    “Being repaired?” Jason asked.
    “Trying to… like with everything else on the ship. There’s no repair manual—figuring out the operation, maintenance and repair of things has been pretty much a crap shoot,” Lieutenant Perkins said, shrugging.
    “Shall we move inside and continue?”
    “One question, what is that circular thing at the top forward area of the hull?” Jason asked, pointing to a curved section near the