Ticonderoga - Episode 1 : Adrift

mold of character reference ;

***

Name : Phillip Irving grave

membership : sea captain - commanding officer

Call Sign : Pig

History : He was born on old earth in the orbit known as the western Territories of North United States of America. As a younker he was a trouble Jehovah this, being virtually unheard of in his century, forced the armed services to plow with him. He was given a choice. connect the United satellite peace keeping and research force or be remanded for genial conditioning to fix his behavioral trouble. His calling in the armed forces was a slap-up example of how not to advance. After twenty age he was still only a petty ship's officer third class. That was when he was caught pulling off his worst infraction yet. Fleet full admiral Tigrat caught him in bed with his married woman, and both of his daughter, at the same time. Phillip was doomed to go back to al-Qaida rank and file again. But instead the admiral made him an offer. Find a wife, get promoted to captain, with a ship, and go deep.

description : He is six foot tall, with jet opprobrious hair and brown middle. His body type is melt off and sinewy with tan skin tone.

match : Mrs. Millishia Jaunu Steppen-Graves

***

Name : Mrs. Millishia Jaunu Steppen-Graves

Rank : Commander - Ships science military officer and fourth in command

call option Sign : Marijuana

History : She was born a simple farm girl in the Midwest Territories of northward US. She led an exemplary life, with no job, until she came of age. Then she found she had a taste for bad boys. To try and curb her appetite for self destructive demeanour, she joined the service. Her career was in good fiat and she was happy after five geezerhood but she longed to go deep. The only trouble was you had to be married and no one was asking. There was also the job of Phillip ; she thought he was just dreamy. He was everything she wanted in a bad boy, but his calling meant he would never even manage to wee it into infinite. She only had one more rank to go then she could go. That would take another six calendar month. Then she was broadsided by a question she never thought any man would ask."Will you marry me I need a wife before I can go deep ?"

verbal description : She is a five pes six inch tall, blond haired, blue eyed beauty, with medium sized boob. Her body style is lithe and athletic.

Mate : Phillip Irving Graves

***

gens : St. James Mitchell Penzo

Rank : Master Chief petty Officer - boss applied scientist and mechanic.

yell planetary house : Jazz hands

History : He was born on the emerald isle of Europe. He was a good kid and went to college. After school he joined the service to set up a little nest egg. There he met his wife and fell in love. He had a promising vocation ahead of him, and then everything hit the fan. He discovered the medicinal upshot of the engine solvent. Just a little nip of it could reach any man happy. He stayed felicitous a lot after that. When he was found out, he was offered a choice, military separation or he and his wife go deep.

Description : He is five pes eight inches grandiloquent with grim park eyes and brown hair. His dead body type is thick with just a slight fifth wheel tire.

match : Leafa Tiski Mikia-Penzo

***

Name : Mrs Leafa Tiski Mikia-Penzo

Rank : Senior honcho Petty Officer - Chief of off ship security.

Call signaling : Demoness

story : She was born on her indigene world of Liskia. She is warm and fast and excelled in her calling as armed forces police, until her husband introduced her to the solvent. Everything still worked well for them until she was called out on an parking brake while she was extremely happy. Six workweek later she boarded her new vessel, The UP Ticonderoga.

description : She is six fundament two inches improbable. Her race has red cutis and hair with lite grey eyes. Many hoi polloi say they look like the mythical demons, right down to the two tuft of fuzz on their brow that resembled horns. Her soundbox type is tenuous and lithe with a well defined muscle tone.

Ilex paraguariensis : James Mitchell Penzo

***
Name : Malcolm Leroy Libbshitz

Rank : Lieutenant Junior Grade - xeno-biologist.

phone call Sign : bronco buster

history : He is a native of Ling, a human Colony, joined the divine service to go deep, he wanted the life of an explorer, he was also married and his wife joined at the Saami meter looking to ship out with him. He is an expert in xeno-botany and xeno-zoology and loves to study new specie of both plants and animate being.

verbal description : He is five foot eight inches tall with mousey blonde fuzz and dispirited eyes. His physical structure eccentric is thin and non muscular.

fellow : Melonie Michelle Russel-Libbshitz

***

public figure : Melonie Michelle Russel-Libbshitz

Rank : Lieutenant Junior grade - ships doctor.

Call polarity : melon

account : She is a native of Ling, a human Colony, and was married to her college truelove. She joined the service to go late with him.

description : She is five metrical unit six inches tall with platinum blond tomentum and very large breasts. He body character is voluptuous.

Mate : Malcolm Leroy Libbshitz

***

gens : Lorka Dumont Willock

Rank : Commander - security measure policeman, second in command.

telephone call Sign : Mountain

account : He is a Tithian warrior. Born on Tithia and joined the service of process to get a chance to do engagement in this time of peace. He is very popular with the Lady because his airstream believes that passion romp should be as cutter as war is violent.

Description : At well over seven metrical unit tall and four 100 and fifty Sudanese pound of solid muscle he is by far the largest extremity of the crew, except for his wife. His black skin looks like a shadower come to life sentence. The only break of serve in his wickedness is his red eyes.

match : Tanka Lundt Cravis-Willock

***

name : Tanka Lundt Cravis-Willock

Rank : Commander - Weapons officer, one-third in control

call option Sign : Mt. Everest

story : She is a Female Tithian warrior. She joined the service with her husband, in the promise of finding battle. She is a foot taller than her husband, and a hellhole of a lot meaner.

description : She is eight infantry four inches tall with darkness fatal tegument and red eyes. Her body type is extremely muscular.

spouse : Lorka Dumont Willock


-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -

I stared at the vacuous view concealment in front of me. My ship had been adrift for three days. There was only one problem when you were deep ; there was no one to aid when you hit trouble. The cheeseparing ship to us was two calendar month travel away. It had taken us two years to get this far out.

"going oceanic abyss"is a euphemism for getting lost. We were sent out here to find out inhabitable satellite that we could colonize or resource we could mine for. The fun region, the linguistic rule say the first crew member to set foot on a planet gets to name the planet.

The united race had managed to colonize or mining coterie every rock for threescore light years around earth. We were one hundred and twenty out. It took about a year to move around sixty tripping years with the snort drive as it was called. It got its public figure because the matter and antimatter explosions inside it made it sound like it was snorting. We could put up with the annoying audio to travel at sixty times the f number of light. The problem right now is our snorter had a stopped up nose.

I thumbed the communications panel on my chair to sprightliness."idle words workforce, What the hell is taking so long down there ? If you are nipping at the solvent again I'm going to take you off of sculptural relief rotary motion for two calendar week."

"Not a chance, Pig, I am trying to fix the darn scathe those cockbiter rats did to the engine wiring. The sleep with little beasties chewed through every light telegram in the independent fire control cabinet."

"How long before we have railway locomotive tycoon again ?"

"Another day at least, we have over a thousand wires to replace in this cabinet."

"That is what you said yesterday, the day before, and the day before that, anathemize it, I want this ship moving by the end of this rotation !"

"Captain, even if I get this repaired that is no guarantee we will be able-bodied to strike. We have no idea what else they damaged before we could shoot down the minuscule bastards. Go charter a moderation break and let me do my shucks job."

I stalked off of the nosepiece. The damn raising were down so I had to go up down the access ladders to get to the crew decks. I guess we could ring ourselves golden ; those little varmints had not reached the life support equipment yet. twenty dollar bill cockbiter rats had managed to chew through our primary power control, lift command systems, helm control interlink, navigation, and engine flame control in less than twenty four hr. twenty dollar bill rats had crippled a ship, with crew of one hundred masses on board. Only lot knows what else was damaged. malarkey paw was properly I needed stress relief ; it was prison term to head to the crew lounge.

There is a major set of convention about going abstruse. The offset one is all work party penis must be mated mates. The second rule is all relationships are assailable on the ship. When off tariff personnel need stress relief any off duty soul of the opposite gender is available to them, unless they are in their sleep cycle. Any same sex inter-group communication are not forbidden but are open air to be refused. Your quarters were kept monogamous, only you and your married person enjoyed that location. The lounge is where you go to arrange contact with early crew penis. That is also where the"grooming"elbow room are. There is one for just about every taste, from the pleasant to the downright kinky.

social status has its prerogative as well. program line policeman are allowed to take stress breaks during duty if there is no pressing pauperism for their attentions. As of rightfield now, there was no pressing need for me. I could not command this ship to move if I were a god.

I no sooner walked into the lounge when Melonie saw me and came over. I knew what she was after, she loved my oral techniques."want some stress relief, captain ?"

"At least a week's worth, Melons."I said as I took her by the arm and guided her towards the bar."I believe the lady is drinking a cobalt breaker, and I would enjoy a calum tea."I told the bartender as I caressed melons stomach. I always enjoyed her very large breast and today would be no exception.

When we received our drinks, she took a sip from hers then asked,"Floaty ?"

"That sounds like a wonderful idea,"I nodded towards the one of the zero-G room. When we entered the room I adjusted the controller on the holographic exhibit to urinate it look like we were in the swarm. I had seen decent sensation already today. All of them lead I couldn't reach. We attached the chapeau to our glasses so our drunkenness would not float out and then I touched the trigger off button. Watching her breasts suddenly float upward as the gravity stopped was an amazing treat. We floated in the air together as I started to undress her. As was standard when in the couch, her vesture was simple and easy to remove. She wore a pullover shirt and miniskirt with no panty on underneath. Her shoes were simple slipper very easy and quite attractive. The thin atmospherics charge caused by pulling her shirt over her head caused her hair to stand out like a hallo of Pt blond silk. By a lot of touchstone this cleaning woman would be considered overweight. She weighed about twenty pound over ideal free weight for her five foundation six inch frame. To me the extra blurriness just made her voluptuous.

Once her clothes were floating around the elbow room like cast off feather, she started to undress me. My uniform was a little more complicated to remove. It was a knotty clitoris up pants and shirt, with a jacket over it, all in black. The shoe were polished ne plus ultra in blackness natural leather. Underneath it all was my regulation underwear, also Black person. Add the drear gray swath and chest bandolier as well as my maitre d'hotel's hat to the whole thing and I looked like a condition scalawag. Soon all of these clothes were floating around the room as well.

I pulled Melons to me and began to kiss the skin of her neck opening and chest. This elicited several moans of pleasure. Her legs wrapped around my tummy and squeezed me hard enough to be slightly painful. She began to flex her hips rubbing her pert bottom on the top of my cock. I was very tempted to take up what she was offering right then but I had other thought. Zero-G has one real reward to making love on any open. I guided her legs out from around me as she pouted with those full lips that were just made for what I had in brain. Once she was relinquish I spun her in the air and brought her legs around to my boldness. There in figurehead of my eyes was a small landing flight strip of platinum blonde hair that pointed right to the object of my desire. I moved my head forward and inhaled the fragrance of her arousal. With deliberate slowness I extended my tongue and began to make small rope through that confection landing strip.

I felt her mouth as she started to bat and kiss along the lance of my tool. Her rima oris and lips were delightful warmth on my peel. The vibrations of her moans made my cock jump and twitch as I touched the tip of my tongue to her clit and flipped it quickly back and forth. I nearly forgot what I was doing when I felt my cock glide down her pharynx. She was so smooth and hot on the inside. I moved both of my hands around her delightful tush and started wetting my fingers in the honey flowing from her besotted slit. When I felt her legs starting to reduce around my head, I slid two finger from one hand into her tight pussy. My midsection finger of my other hand pushed into her silky asshole. I started pumping my fingers in and out of her at different velocity. Sometimes they would be moving in and out together, others they would be in a counterpoint rhythm.

I felt her tum begin to tighten and thrill against my chest. Then her legs slammed shut on my head word like a clamp. Her menses was floating in droplets around my forefront as she orgasmed. While she was still vibrating and shaking through her orgasm I spun her through the air until I was behind her. I plunged the duration of my rock hard cock into her from behind. She let out a groan that was bordering on a scream. I began to Lebanese pound with all my might as we floated in the air. Then we both arched our backs as we thundered into our orgasms together.

Ten minutes later we left the floaty elbow room freshly showered. As we exited the way, I set the ascendancy to clean and sterilise the room. I kissed melon vine and left her drinking and grinning at the bar. As I was walking out of the bar, the whole ship lurched and then vibrated with a moan that sounded like it was dying.

I slapped the communication theory panel at the threshold."Jazz Hands, are we moving ?"

"Yes sir, but not under our own power any more."James answered.

"What do you intend any more ?"

"We got the system of rules online, and fired the engines up. They immediately shut down. It seems our inertia control system is down as well."

"surety I want every one of those damn git killed again."

"Sir, we have no arm control, would you like my wife and I to throw rock candy at their natation corpses ?"Mountain said back facetiously.

"No, bemuse fellow at them ; he's the prick that brought those fucking blackleg on my ship."

"How soon, nothingness Hands ?"

"We are looking at the damage now but I say at least a day."

"You always say a day. I want this damn ship moving under its own power by end of bicycle or I am going to break you to Mt. Everest and Mountain as a fair game dummy !"

"Yes sir. Have you gotten that stress relief yet ?"

"No, and I am looking for your wife right now, so move it."

As I moved back to the bridge my head wandered back to the events that led up to this place. We had found a planet with no lighthouse on it. It was unexplored. CAT scan showed it to be a lush oxygen rich planet with plant and animal liveliness abundant on the Earth's surface and in the seas. I organized a landing political party to investigate the surface.

***

The party, consisting of ganja, Demoness, bronco buster, Melons, pot and myself, left the ship in a bird. Several orbital pass and CAT scan later we determined a fertile area to land and investigate.

It was a diffuse touchdown nothing at all out of the ordinary. There was the scuffle for positions to see who could defecate it through the doorway first. I had to laugh as the threshold slid back and my wife muscled Mountain out of the way. I walked down the ramp to see my wife dancing in a field of battle of phallus. Yes I said that right hand, all of the plant in the expanse were short maybe twelve column inch marvelous and shaped like that portion of the manlike anatomy.

I looked around to see the trees, thank god they looked more like Tree, and they even had beautiful efflorescence growing on them. A skinny looking at at the bloom made me think I had lost it. They looked like garden pink phallus with two balls hanging underneath them. I thought it was pretty earmark that my wife would get to key a world covered in penis shaped plants.

"My god it is a man of dick !"my married woman exclaimed as she looked around.

"So plant the beacon, move over it a name and cash register it. The radio beacon will send back the info via short space."I said as I walked down and resisted the itch to smack any of the flowers.

My married woman set up the beacon station, as the rest of us looked around.

"I don't want to bend over on this planet."slew said quietly beside me, making me laugh.

"It does experience a certain menacing comportment doesn't it ?"

buster was the number one one to see an creature. It was floating gently on the breeze towards one of the Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree. It had boastfully compressed wings with bladders underneath them. These bladders probably contain some gas lighter than the air around us. By paddling its groundwork it would impress through the air like a duck swam across the urine. As we watched it swam up to one of the Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree and put its lip around one of the flowers. A few indorsement later it left the flower hanging limply from its stem and moved to another flower. One by one it drained the"ambrosia"out of the squiffy flowers leaving them flaccid.

"We need a couple of those birds on the ship,"Buster said as we watched."I bet we could take them back to UP space and sell them for a fortune."

"Get some samples for field of study, we will stay put all-night and take everything back in the morning."I told Buster and his wife. They set about collecting flora and animal sample distribution. They caught one of the fowl but it died in less than an 60 minutes in the cage. They must demand to eat constantly.

baby buster gave me a news report a couple hours later. The flowers on the Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree produced nectar that made the shaft clay. When the Bladder Winged Cocksucker raspberry would nurse at the prime they would discharge out the nectar and take some of the pollen away on their mouths. Those moving from flower to blossom fulfil dressing for the plant. The hitch bloom would guide about an hour to generate a good load of nectar again. There were respective early animals and plants that he reported on.
My married woman had decided to call this property, appropriately enough, dick's World.

As evening started to darken the skies we saw respective, rat like, brute come out of yap in the ground. They started to climb up the tree diagram. We watched as they moved to the ends of the limbs and bit the efflorescence off the tree and ate them. Every man in the chemical group cringed watching this. I think sight even turned a little pale. These creature quickly became known as cockbiter crumb. Buster thought they wouldn't sell well.

Our sensing element could not detect any fauna bigger than the birds within five hundred clicks of us so we bedded down in the shuttle for the night.

I awoke the next morning and shook Demoness awake future to me. She smiled as I retrieved two cup of coffee from the energy solidifier. I looked around and noticed all of the others had already moved outside. Buster must take in awoken my married woman when he got up to check his traps.

We got dressed and moved outside. Buster was studying a cage of twenty of the cockbiter rats he had captured during the dark. They seemed a bit unfearing than the birds. I oversaw the sample distribution being packed in over crates to be taken back to the science lab on the ship. Then we did a low floor fly over of the planet to take scan and images of the industrial plant and animal lifetime. In twelve time of day we cataloged over six thousand new species.

The flight back to the ship was uneventful and smooth. We were in the shuttle bay unloading when the lab geeks all showed up to see the sample distribution. I tried to tell buster to make sure the crateful were in the lab containment area before he opened them, but I was too recently. He popped the door latch on the rat crate and rats exploded out and ran all over the deck. It took less than a minute for them all to disappear down an out-of-doors access hatch. They had chewed through the plasteel of the cage, this should have warned me of what was about to happen.

"Do not open any early crates !"I yelled."At to the lowest degree we don't have any penis bloom here for them to eat. I want them all caught and then you are to see me in the statement office, Buster."

"Yes sir,"he said with a gulp.

I stalked to the bridge to get my position study. That overzealous science geek had let rats loose on my ship. I was on the bridge receiving my report when the get-go sign of trouble happen. The navigation screen went blank. We were suddenly flying screen."piloting, what the hell are you doing over there ?"

"I didn't do anything, sir, my cabinet just lost connection with engineering."

"Helm control, bring us to entire stop, now !"I shouted as I stood from my chairperson. Suddenly my ship lurched and I fell on my face."red cent it, helm, you can't just cut the railway locomotive, how long have you been flying this crateful ?"

"I didn't even touch the controls, sir, the consol has lost link."

I stood and slapped the communications control board on my professorship."engineering science ! Report ! What the nether region are you doing down there ? You can't cut tie-in while we are in flight !"

Jazz work force came on the intercom,"Sir we didn't do anything. When the navigation bank went power dark, we opened the panel and blackleg came running out. How the hell did we get squealer on the ship ?"

We all heard the throb of the engines wind down as they shut themselves down."All hands find those mother fucking rats and vote down them ! Now ! security system, payoff inducers to everyone with digit. Lock them all on stun, we don't want any stroke. I will give everyone that stuns a rat an extra ease cycle."

turn to our tactical station,"Everest, take us to alert status."She thumbed the alarm system on her console table to on.

The yellow admonition lights on the ship came to life. The computers part could be heard all over the ship as she said,"alarum, all force are to exert alarum Statuuuuuuuussssssssss…"Then the warning lights went out and the bridge went dark.

***

I shook myself out of my reverie as I entered the bridge. The first thing I noticed was the opinion covert was no tenacious blank. It now showed a large, heavy asteroid bailiwick, and we were moving towards it slowly."Everest, devote me a place report."

"We are drifting towards the asteroid field at approximately fifteen hundred km per second. Estimated time to entrance into the airfield is six hours."

"Bring our shields and targeting online. Get the gunners in their stations and tell them we may need to suffer a little target practice."

"The artilleryman are reporting to Stations of the Cross, but the weapon system linkup are all still down, we have no accelerator. The shield are on but we can not detect if they are working."

"So my day just got regretful. We may or may not have shields, we don't have guns. And we have no ascendancy over where the ship is going. Does that sum it up ?"

"Yes, sir."

"Let's get crews in the two shuttle and see if we can tow the ship into a new course."

activation the communications in my chair I called down to technology."Jazz helping hand have me some good news program. Please."

"Pig, I promise you I will bear the helm control and inertial control back on descent in eight time of day. My the great unwashed are working around the clock."

"That is well news, now I have some great news show for you. In six hours you will no longer have to vex about repairing the ship. Those big rocks out there are going to finish the job those puke started. At the speed we are traveling one of those rock music is going to turn this ship into slag."

"Do you bed a good saboteur religious service that may be in the region ?"

"We are sending the shuttles out."

I thumbed off the com panel."Babe, chip in me some good news."

cannabis spoke without looking away from her console."We have an estimated impact meter of seven hour and four mo. Then we are going to be landing on a large asteroid dead ahead. We are caught in the somberness well of that large gas giant on the other English of the field. I am running the calculation on the shuttlecock now."

"I asked for good news show, you could accept told me you smuggled a feeding bottle of whiskey on add-in or something."

I stared at the view screen that I now wished was space again. My mind started to drift back to the rats again.

***

We were hunting rats ; they seemed to move about the ship with impunity chewing on anything that glowed. The easy wires were cancel butt."We need one of them alive so Buster can recount us why they are after the light wires."

Our group split up into twosome. I was teamed with Demoness, our architectural plan was simple ; run about the ship opening access panel. If anything ran out pull the initiation and daze it. I noticed mountain had put on his observance armour for the hunt club. It had a thick codpiece for protection down there.

chatter over our helmet com was kept to a lower limit. Demoness opened the first panel, it was to life support. There was nothing. We moved to the lift mastery venire. When I opened it there was an burst of fur and teeth. Then there was incredible infliction as I was hit by the bam from the inducer. Damn I am glad it was set to stun.

I woke up in the medical lab with a huge pair of breasts hovering over my human face."Hi, Melons,"I mumbled as I shook my head to clear it."Did we at to the lowest degree manage to get one of the so-and-so ?"

"Demoness caught four of them, and bagged a captain with only four shots."Melons said as she leaned to look past her boob and into my face.

"Damn ! That hurt."I could see Demoness out of the recession of my eye."Why did you germinate me ?"

"We had to block up the blabber, I knew the artillery was on stun and wouldn't hurt you."Demoness said with a mater of fact tone.

"melon vine's dear, would you please hired hand me my inducer ; I want to point Demoness just how little they hurt."As Melon's looked at me with big centre, Demoness quietly slipped out of the room. I reached over for the com panel next to the bed."bronco buster, tell me some skillful news."

"My retirement account is up L thousand."

"Don't worry, if you don't stop the blabber you are not going to need a retirement bill, now what about the rats ?"

"I am studying them now ; I should have a written report in two hours."

"In two hours they are going to eat every light telegram in the ship. How do we stop them ?"

"The only thing I know is they are attracted to the ignitor conducting wire because they glow on the same wavelength in extremist reddish blue as the flowers do. As to why they are attracted to them."

I jumped out of the bed and headed for engineering. Mountain was in the lobby."Get every marksman armed with rifles and meet me in engineering. We are going to feature an old fashioned Turkey shoot."

raft headed off to accumulate men and women. I went to engine room."Jazz Hands, get over here, I have an idea."

"Yes sir,"James said as he ran up."Sir we are really interfering trying to resort the scathe. Can this expect ?"

"No. How long would it take to get a pile of part with fall wire in the center of engineering science and attach it to the main author ?"

"About twenty minutes."

"You have ten, I also want the briny connexion from the generator to the rest period of the ship set to disconnect on my command."

"You want us to throw to the musical accompaniment ?"

"No I want power cut completely. We need to get all the outer doors closed and all of the lift shafts shut down."

"The lifts are no problem the rats chewed them up about fifteen min ago. The outer doorway may be a problem. The chief shuttle bay door are stuck open and the observation windowpane in the forward cartography lab is non-operational."

"Evacuate those areas, tell everyone they have twenty minutes to ensure everything and get out. We are going to bait a hole for the rats."

"But sir, If we cut the independent power then the computer will go down. We will be completely defenseless."

"We are facing a master opposition, in an unknown tactical situation. We are completely defenseless now. If the rats continue at this rate we will have no ship in XII hours. It is fourth dimension to make a last standpoint. The rats are attracted to the spark wire so we will hold them the only mountain of glowing telegram on the ship to fall for. Now get them set up or I am going to hang you from the fore of the ship like a figurehead."

"Yes sir."

I moved to the upper balcony, as the others started to gather. I set hoi polloi up in military position so we had full reporting of the applied science deck below. The megabucks of wires was a sum of ardour anything that moved was a target."All rightfield masses there are xvi of these rats to kill. I want everyone's weapon set to overkill. We can not afford for a 1 rat to escape this trap."

As I took my billet as the endure of the personnel department left the let down level. Then the Light went out. It was such a foresightful wait. But after almost an 60 minutes the number one rat came out of an accession hatch and started moving toward the wires. He was hit by the beams of over xl weapon system. The little bastard was zero but a hunk of charcoal.

It took about an minute for the rats to protrude showing up. It took XX minutes for the go one to light. I stood and hit the com panel. It was perfectly like everything else."Jazz hands, lets get the system rebooted and repairs started."

***

I rose out of my woolgathering to see a bombastic rock music on the scene sieve."Tactical, how far out is it and estimated time to affect ?"

"We are five item six seven million kilometers from the asteroid. Estimated touch on metre is one hour and three minutes."Mount Everest answered.

"Reduce the magnification to ten times."

"It is already at ten times, sir."

"poop ! How big is that thing ?"

"It is four thousand kilometers long by two thousand wide."

"So if we hit it, it will indent my ship ?"

"Definitely, sir."

"How is the endeavor to change our trend with the shuttles going ?"

"Not honorable, sir, the attitude rectification reverse lightning are firing and locking us on course."

"Bring them back in. We are going to need the shuttles along with the liveliness boats to evacuate."I looked at the silver screen. My heart sank. This was not exactly how I had envisioned ending my command. If we made it back awake we would get full honour and retirement benefits as admirals. My intellect drifted back to the day I had been informed of my choices.

***

"Petty officer third class Phillip John Irving Graves, reporting as ordinate sir."I said as I walked into admiral Tigrat's post. He looked up at me with a shit eating grin on his aspect. He motioned with his hand for me to sit and be at ease.

"Phillip, I am at a loss for what to do with you. If I press guardianship then everyone in the fleet is going to know what you did. If I don't closet bursting charge then you get off Robert Scott free and I can not let that happen either."He looked at me with open hatred in his eyes.

"Sir, we could just let this go with a private punishment."

The smile that cracked his face was one of pure evil."My thoughts exactly, so here is the slew. I am going to recommend you as the skipper of the Ticonderoga. It is scheduled to start at the end of the month. Then you are going to go deep. Your commission will be two geezerhood transit out, then XVI years exploring. When you return, you will have admiral's benefits."

"Sir, I am not married."I knew the disk, not s single ship had ever come back from going deeply. Most disappeared without a trace. He was consigning me to a death sentence. My own command weighed profound on my mind. I had always thought I could do it better than any of these boaster. Out there I would be the vocalism of authority. I would be the only when command chain. The buck would end with me.

"You have until the end of the month to find a wife or I will opt one for you."

The smile he gave me had me thinking through the women I knew. I sure as hell on earth would not let him decide. Then Millishia came to listen, she was one Inferno of a skill officer. Her vocation was halcyon. Maybe I could get one over on the old ass in front of me yet."Do I get to choose my work party ?"

"You will be given a leaning of volunteers for deep service. You may choose thirty dyad from it. The early 19 dyad I will take. I already have one of your locomotive engineer and Doctor picked out. Plus a brace of security system people you will just love."

"Do normal oceanic abyss rules apply ?"

"Yes, the ship must run efficiently."

Millishia and I were married a week later, we saw the ship for the first time a seven days after that.

The Ticonderoga was a affair of beauty, long and flowing with four engine nacelles under her consistence coach. She hung in distance like a apparition, the rib of the shipyard inning surrounding her. The long narrow body looked like an arrow with atmospherical stabilizers on the rear half. The encompassing head of the arrow was where the command decks sat. The slightly across-the-board body was the crew arena. Under the main body hung engineering and medical exam. She was designed to cut through outer space like a weapon system. She was one of the sexiest things I had ever seen. I was supposed to account aboard and choose my crowd via interviews.

A few of my crowd was already onboard, my engineer, Saint James the Apostle Billy Mitchell Penzo, and his wife, Leafa Tiski Mikia-Penzo were two of them. I had read their file cabinet, they were solvent junky. She was also a Liskian, they were reputed to be a tough lot.

I had looked at the filing cabinet of over a M volunteer couples, I had to piece thirty. I had discovered something profound. Most people that wanted to go deeply were nut cases. These were no exceptions. The volunteers ran the stratagem from mad scientist to psycho killers. I was at a loss for anyone I trusted on a farseeing flying let alone wanted there.

I spent the next calendar week interviewing aspirant ; it was the hardest week of my life. If it had not been for Millishia, I probably would have begged the admiral to court mobilize me. The following three daytime were spent choosing my gang and filing their new ranks. One affair nice about being a captain of a deep ship, outrank onboard your ship was your choice. You set the chain of command and the duty roll. The headwaiter was the first last and only agate line of mastery once you left the space port.

quartet days later the mooring lines fell away from the ship. My new steersman only managed to hit the dry dock once on the way out. I now had an untested crew, a new ship with all the microbe inherent and two long time to turn them into a functioning crew before we made our initiatory planet fall.

***

Again I pulled myself out of my memories, that rock was much bigger. The countdown on the sieve said thirty-one minutes. My mind started flying through the possibilities. I had to come up with an answer. I would not fall behind my ship and command after our first satellite fall.

A plan came to me. It would take in some visualise flying. I hit the com unit in my death chair."jazz handwriting, Prepare to disconnect all power on my mastery. Demoness, I need your navigation attainment, you have shuttle two, I have shuttlecock one, we launch in five."

Jazz Hands came on the com unit,"maitre d' we have to make office to do mending, if you make me cut it off again it will take an hr to completely restart the system."

"I know, Saint James, if what I have planned works I will buy you the time you need."

"And if it doesn't ?"

"Then it won't matter anymore, you don't have time to fix the ship before we make our second planet crepuscle. Do me a favor, Jazz."

"What, sir ?"

"Take tutelage of my wife."I thumbed off the console and left the bridge before anyone could ask any head. I had a programme ; if it worked I would save my ship. Either way I was going to die first.

I burst into birdie bay one and walked aboard the shuttlecock. I could hear the com traffic as Demoness launched. I thumbed the com unit between the two shuttles to animation."Demoness, I am going to fly this ship into direct contact with the organic structure of the Ticonderoga. Then I am going to throw Jazz Hands cut all power. That should discontinue the pusher from firing. Once that is set I am going to fire up the engines in the shuttle and pass on her the gas. If this works I will deflect the ship by enough to escape the asteroid field."

"Sir, if you do that your engines will overheat and flame out in seconds. The interior of the birdie will be a half million stage fireball."

"That is where you come in. I am going to eject, I need you to outflank me up fast and get me clear. Get my body back for a becoming funeral."

"You don't have a spacesuit, Pig, have you lost your mind ?"

"I don't have time to put a suit on ; if this is going to influence I have to do it now."I shut off the com duct. It took me less than a mo to position my shuttle. I contacted malarkey hands,"Cut the powerfulness now !"Then I put the engine top executive to broad and locked the throttle. The on instrument panel computer started telling me I was going to die.

"Imminent engine overburden in XX seconds. Imminent engine overload in xix seconds. Imminent locomotive engine overload in 18 seconds."I dove for the mastery for the ejection system. I let all of the air out of my lungs and pulled the grip."System detects non suited personnel office, ejection scheme disabled."

roll in the hay ! I pulled my side arm and shot the console. Then I yanked the handle again, there was a mind numbing roar as the air exploded out of the ship. My question hit something solid a few seconds later and the worldly concern went dark. My finale thought process was,"fuck, that hurts."

***

"Captain Graves, I do not bear you to come back from this. I expect you to die a bloody and horrible death."full admiral Tigrat said as I was in my last consultation before launch."Do not let down me."

"Respectfully sir, my integral crowd will be at your one one percent birthday party. There I will give your wife and daughters a osculation right in nominal head of you. How did you ever manage to get a annulus on the fingerbreadth of that womanhood ? She has to be at least forty years new than you."

***

My head was pounding out a rhythm that sounded like a hangover."Where ?"I managed to ask around the bother in my head.

"Med lab,"the huge pair of breasts above me said quietly.

"How ?"

"Liskians are hard than humans, she had the shuttle decompressed and waiting on your projection. Once you flew onboard she put up the emergency fields and re-pressurized. You may have a few aches and pains plus blear vision for a few days, but you will be fine soon."

"melon vine's, what about the ship ?"

"The ship is out of risk and flying under its own big businessman again, maitre d'. You got us clear of the asteroids and bought him the time to fix the ship. By the meter I let you out of here we will be fully functional again."

"William Tell wind Hands and Demoness to take an extra relaxation cycle, they even earned a nip of the solvent."

"jazz flushed the eternal rest of the solvent out the airlock. He said any man that would do what you did to save the ship deserves a sober machinist. ”