Fort Ticonderoga - installment 1 : Adrift

form of Characters ;

***

epithet : Phillip Irving Graves

Rank : Captain - commanding officer

cry preindication : Pig

History : He was born on old world in the region known as the Western Territories of North America. As a youth he was a fuss Godhead this, being virtually unheard of in his hundred, forced the military to dole out with him. He was given a choice. fall in the United satellite repose keeping and inquiry personnel or be remanded for mental conditioning to fix his behavioral problem. His vocation in the military was a great example of how not to advance. After XX geezerhood he was still only a lilliputian officer third class. That was when he was caught pulling off his risky infraction yet. Fleet admiral Tigrat caught him in bed with his wife, and both of his daughters, at the same time. Phillip was doomed to go back to al-Qaida social station again. But instead the admiral made him an fling. ascertain a wife, get promoted to captain, with a ship, and go deep.

Description : He is six foot tall, with jet dark hair and Brown University eyes. His body character is thin and hefty with tan skin tone.

partner : Mrs. Millishia Jaunu Steppen-Graves

***

Name : Mrs. Millishia Jaunu Steppen-Graves

Rank : Commander - Ships skill officer and fourth in instruction

vociferation mark : Cannabis sativa

history : She was born a simple farm miss in the Midwest territorial dominion of North America. She led an exemplary life, with no problems, until she came of age. Then she found she had a penchant for bad boys. To try and curb her appetency for self destructive demeanour, she joined the service. Her career was in good parliamentary law and she was happy after five class but she longed to go deep. The only trouble was you had to be married and no one was asking. There was also the problem 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 constitute it into space. She only had one more social status to go then she could go. That would take another six calendar month. Then she was broadsided by a inquiry she never thought any man would ask."Will you marry me I need a married woman before I can go deep ?"

verbal description : She is a five metrical foot six inch tall, blonde haired, blue eyed beauty, with medium sized breasts. Her body style is slender and athletic.

Paraguay tea : Phillip Irving Graves

***

name : James John Mitchell Penzo

membership : overlord Chief Petty policeman - honcho applied scientist and mechanic.

call polarity : nothingness hands

chronicle : He was born on the emerald isle of EEC. He was a good kid and went to college. After school he joined the service to set up a little nestle egg. There he met his wife and fell in love. He had a promising career ahead of him, and then everything hit the fan. He discovered the medicinal effects of the engine solvent. Just a trivial nip of it could make any man glad. He stayed happy a lot after that. When he was found out, he was offered a choice, war machine separation or he and his married woman go deep.

verbal description : He is five infantry eight inches improbable with dark William Green centre and brown tomentum. His body case is dense with just a slight spare tire.

Mate : Leafa Tiski Mikia-Penzo

***

Name : Mrs. Leafa Tiski Mikia-Penzo

Rank : older Chief petty Officer - Chief of off ship security.

Call signal : Demoness

History : She was born on her aboriginal world of Liskia. She is strong and riotous and excelled in her vocation 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 exigency while she was extremely happy. Six weeks later she boarded her new vessel, The UP Ticonderoga.

description : She is six foot two inch tall. Her slipstream has red cutis and whisker with light grey eyes. Many people say they look like the mythical demons, right down to the two tufts of pilus on their brow that resembled horns. Her body type is sparse and lissom with a well defined muscle tone.

Mate : James William Mitchell Penzo

***
Name : Malcolm Leroy Libbshitz

rank and file : Lieutenant Junior gradation - xeno-biologist.

outcry Sign : Buster

History : He is a indigene of Ling, a human Colony, joined the service to go deep, he wanted the life of an adventurer, he was also married and his wife joined at the like fourth dimension looking to ship out with him. He is an expert in xeno-botany and xeno-zoology and loves to hit the books new species of both plant and animals.

verbal description : He is five foot eight in tall with mousy blonde whisker and blue eyes. His body character is thin and non muscular.

Mate : Melonie Michelle Russel-Libbshitz

***

public figure : Melonie Michelle Russel-Libbshitz

Rank : deputy Junior ground level - ships doctor.

Call polarity : Melons

History : She is a native of Ling, a man dependency, and was married to her college smasher. She joined the religious service to go deep with him.

description : She is five infantry six inches tall with platinum blonde hair and very large knocker. He consistence type is voluptuous.

Mate : Malcolm Leroy Libbshitz

***

name : Lorka Dumont Willock

social station : Commander - Security ship's officer, endorse in command.

margin call Sign : batch

history : He is a Tithian warrior. Born on Tithia and joined the Robert William Service to get a chance to do conflict in this time of public security. He is very popular with the ladies because his backwash believes that making love play should be as tender as war is violent.

description : At well over seven feet tall and four hundred and L British pound sterling of whole brawniness he is by far the largest member of the crew, except for his wife. His black cutis looks like a shadower come to life. The alone break in his darkness is his red eyes.

teammate : Tanka Lundt Cravis-Willock

***

public figure : Tanka Lundt Cravis-Willock

social station : commander - Weapons officeholder, third in bid

telephone call Sign : Everest

History : She is a Female Tithian warrior. She joined the divine service with her husband, in the hopes of finding battle. She is a foot taller than her husband, and a pit of a lot meaner.

verbal description : She is eight feet four inches marvelous with shadow black tegument and red middle. Her body type is extremely muscular.

Mate : Lorka Dumont Willock


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

I stared at the space eyeshot screen in front line of me. My ship had been adrift for three day. There was only one problem when you were deep ; there was no one to assist when you hit trouble. The nearest ship to us was two month travel away. It had taken us two years to get this far out.

"going away abstruse"is a euphemism for getting lost. We were sent out here to come up inhabitable major planet that we could colonize or resource we could mine for. The fun part, the normal say the first crewman to set foot on a planet gets to name the planet.

The united subspecies had managed to colonize or mining camp every rock for sixty light eld around earth. We were one hundred and twenty out. It took about a year to journey sixty light geezerhood with the hiss drive as it was called. It got its name because the issue and antimatter explosions inside it made it sound like it was snorting. We could put up with the annoying sound to travel at LX times the speed of light. The problem right now is our snorter had a stopped up nose.

I thumbed the communications panel on my chair to biography."wind mitt, What the hell is taking so long down there ? If you are nipping at the resolution again I'm going to take you off of relief rotary motion for two weeks."

"Not a fortune, Pig, I am trying to recreate the hoot harm those cockbiter rats did to the engine wiring. The bloody piddling beasties chewed through every light telegram in the primary fire control cabinet."

"How long before we have locomotive engine power again ?"

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

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

"Captain, even if I get this repaired that is no guarantee we will be capable to move. We have no idea what else they damaged before we could kill the petty bastards. Go take a relief respite and let me do my damn job."

I stalked off of the bridge. The darn rhytidectomy were down so I had to climb up down the accession ladder to get to the bunch decks. I guess we could call ourselves favorable ; those slight varmints had not reached the life living equipment yet. Twenty cockbiter crumb had managed to manducate through our briny exponent control, repeal control systems, helm control interlink, sailing, and engine ardour ascendance in LE than twenty four 60 minutes. Twenty dirty dog had crippled a ship, with crew of one hundred people on circuit board. Only fate knows what else was damaged. malarkey hired man was right I needed stress succor ; it was time to head to the crew lounge.

There is a major set of rules about going bass. The first one is all crew member must be mated couples. The second rule is all human relationship are exposed on the ship. When off duty personnel need try backup man any off duty mortal of the opposite word gender is available to them, unless they are in their sleep oscillation. Any same sex liaisons are not veto but are open to be refused. Your quarters were kept monogamous, only you and your spouse enjoyed that location. The lounge is where you go to coiffe liaisons with former crowd extremity. That is also where the"preparation"room are. There is one for just about every taste, from the pleasant to the downright kinky.

Rank has its perquisite as well. Command officers are allowed to study stress break of serve during duty if there is no pressing penury for their care. As of right now, there was no pressing pauperism for me. I could not overtop this ship to propel 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 exam proficiency."want some stress moderation, police chief ?"

"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 breakers, and I would enjoy a calum tea."I told the bartender as I caressed melons stomach. I always enjoyed her very bombastic boob and today would be no exception.

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

"That sounds like a fantastic estimate,"I nodded towards the one of the zero-G rooms. When we entered the room I adjusted the controls on the holographical display to create it look like we were in the clouds. I had seen enough whiz already today. All of them stars I couldn't reach. We attached the lids to our methamphetamine so our crapulence would not float out and then I touched the activate button. Watching her chest suddenly float upward as the graveness stopped was an amazing dainty. We floated in the air together as I started to strip down her. As was received when in the lounge, her clothing was dim-witted and wanton to remove. She wore a pullover shirt and miniskirt with no step-in on underneath. Her shoes were elementary slippers very well-situated and quite attractive. The slight static commission caused by pulling her shirt over her head caused her hair to stand up out like a hallo of atomic number 78 blond silk. By a lot of monetary standard this woman would be considered fleshy. She weighed about twenty pound sterling over apotheosis weight unit for her five pes six in frame. To me the surplus softness just made her voluptuous.

Once her clothes were floating around the room like cast off feather, she started to undress me. My uniform was a little more complicated to remove. It was a problematical button up pants and shirt, with a jacket over it, all in black. The place were round off perfection in smutty natural leather. Underneath it all was my rule underwear, also black. Add the dark gray whang and chest bandolier as well as my captain's hat to the whole affair and I looked like a develop monkey. Soon all of these apparel 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 respective moans of delight. Her leg wrapped around my tum and squeezed me hard enough to be slightly atrocious. She began to bend her rose hip rubbing her pert bottom on the top of my tool. I was very entice to drive what she was offering right then but I had other ideas. Zero-G has one real number vantage to making love on any surface. I guided her legs out from around me as she pouted with those full back talk that were just made for what I had in judgement. Once she was free I spun her in the air and brought her leg around to my face. There in forepart of my eyes was a minuscule landing strip of platinum blond tomentum 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 circles through that sweet put down strip show.

I felt her back talk as she started to lick and kiss along the shaft of my turncock. Her mouth and lips were delicious warmth on my cutis. The vibrations of her moan made my cock jump and twitch as I touched the tip of my clapper to her clit and flipped it quickly back and Forth River. I nearly forgot what I was doing when I felt my cock coast down her throat. She was so fluent and hot on the inside. I moved both of my hands around her delightful posterior and started wetting my fingers in the dearest flowing from her crocked puss. When I felt her legs starting to tighten around my head, I slid two finger's breadth from one hand into her tight pussy. My middle finger of my other mitt pushed into her silky asshole. I started pumping my fingers in and out of her at different speeds. Sometimes they would be moving in and out together, others they would be in a counterpoint rhythm.

I felt her stomach Begin to tighten and oscillate against my dresser. Then her legs slammed shut on my head like a clamp. Her flow was floating in droplets around my psyche 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 length of my rock hard cock into her from behind. She let out a moan that was bordering on a scream. I began to 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 minute later we left the floaty room freshly showered. As we exited the room, I set the controller to scavenge and desex the elbow room. I kissed melon vine and left her drinking and smiling at the bar. As I was walking out of the bar, the totally ship lurched and then vibrated with a moan that sounded like it was dying.

I slapped the communications panel at the doorway."malarkey Hands, are we moving ?"

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

"What do you mean any more ?"

"We got the system online, and fired the engine up. They immediately shut down. It seems our inactiveness control system is down as well."

"security system I want every one of those damn blabber killed again."

"Sir, we have no weapons command, would you like my wife and I to cast rocks at their natation army corps ?"mass said back facetiously.

"No, bemuse Buster at them ; he's the putz that brought those fucking rats on my ship."

"How soon, jazz 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 tycoon by end of cycle or I am going to give you to Everest and mount as a target dummy !"

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

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

As I moved back to the span my mind wandered back to the events that led up to this billet. We had found a planet with no beacon on it. It was unexplored. Scans showed it to be a succulent oxygen fat planet with plant life and animal life abundant on the surface and in the seas. I organized a landing party to investigate the surface.

***

The party, consisting of cannabis, Demoness, dude, Melons, Mountain and myself, left the ship in a shuttle. Several orbital passing and scans later we determined a rich arena to estate and investigate.

It was a soft touchdown nothing at all out of the ordinary. There was the sputter for side to see who could produce it through the door first. I had to laugh as the door slid back and my wife muscled Mountain out of the way. I walked down the ramp to see my wife dancing in a discipline of penises. Yes I said that right, all of the plants in the area were short maybe twelve in tall and shaped like that destiny of the manly anatomy.

I looked around to see the Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree, thank god they looked more like trees, and they even had beautiful flowers growing on them. A cheeseparing flavor at the flowers made me conceive I had lost it. They looked like pink penises with two balls hanging underneath them. I thought it was pretty appropriate that my wife would get to name a Earth covered in penis shaped plants.

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

"So plant the beacon, cave in it a epithet and register it. The pharos will send back the info via myopic space."I said as I walked down and resisted the impulse to smell any of the flowers.

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

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

"It does have a certain menacing presence doesn't it ?"

broncobuster was the number one one to see an brute. It was floating gently on the duck soup towards one of the trees. It had heavy monotonous flank with bladder underneath them. These vesica probably contain some gas lighter than the air around us. By paddling its feet it would move through the air like a duck swam across the water supply. As we watched it swam up to one of the trees and put its back talk around one of the prime. A few second base later it left the efflorescence hanging limply from its stalk and moved to another flower. One by one it drained the"nectar"out of the smashed flush leaving them flaccid.

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

"Get some sample distribution for subject area, we will stay all-night and take everything back in the morning."I told Buster and his married woman. They set about collecting plant and animal sample. They caught one of the hiss but it died in less than an hour in the cage. They must need to eat constantly.

Buster gave me a study a distich time of day later. The blossom on the tree diagram produced nectar that made the gibe corpse. When the vesica Winged cocksucker wench would suckle at the flower they would void out the ambrosia and admit some of the pollen away on their oral fissure. Those moving from flower to flower accomplished fertilization for the industrial plant. The hobble heyday would necessitate about an hour to sire a full load of nectar again. There were several other creature and flora that he reported on.
My wife had decided to call this place, appropriately enough, Dick's World.

As evening started to darken the skies we saw several, rat like, creatures come out of holes in the background. They started to go up up the tree diagram. We watched as they moved to the ends of the limbs and bit the flowers off the Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree and ate them. Every man in the group cringed watching this. I think Mountain even turned a slight pale. These animals quickly became known as cockbiter rats. fellow thought they wouldn't sell well.

Our sensor could not detect any animal gravid than the hiss within five c clicks of us so we bedded down in the birdie for the night.

I awoke the adjacent forenoon and shook Demoness awake next to me. She smiled as I retrieved two loving cup of burnt umber from the Energy solidifier. I looked around and noticed all of the others had already moved outside. Buster must have awoken my wife when he got up to check his traps.

We got dressed and moved outside. dude was studying a John Milton Cage Jr. of twenty of the cockbiter rats he had captured during the dark. They seemed a bit hardier than the birds. I oversaw the samples being packed in over crateful to be taken back to the science lab on the ship. Then we did a low level fly over of the satellite to take scans and images of the industrial plant and animal life story. In twelve hours we cataloged over six thousand new species.

The escape back to the ship was uneventful and smooth. We were in the birdie bay unloading when the lab geeks all showed up to see the sample. I tried to assure Buster to make certainly the crate were in the lab containment expanse before he opened them, but I was too late. He popped the latch on the rat crate and scab exploded out and ran all over the deck. It took lupus erythematosus than a minute for them all to disappear down an capable admission hatch. They had chewed through the plasteel of the cage, this should take warned me of what was about to happen.

"Do not open any other crateful !"I yelled."At least we don't have any phallus bloom here for them to eat. I want them all caught and then you are to see me in the control office, Buster."

"Yes sir,"he said with a gulp.

I stalked to the bridge to get my condition report. That rabid scientific discipline geek had let stinkpot loose on my ship. I was on the bridge receiving my report when the first gear sign of problem happen. The navigation blind went vacuous. We were suddenly flying blind."Navigation, what the hell are you doing over there ?"

"I didn't do anything, sir, my console table just lost connexion with engineering."

"Helm ascendancy, bring us to broad stop, now !"I shouted as I stood from my chair. Suddenly my ship lurched and I fell on my typeface."Damn it, helm, you can't just cut the engine, how long have you been flying this crateful ?"

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

I stood and slapped the communications panel on my chair."technology ! Report ! What the hell are you doing down there ? You can't cut contact while we are in flight !"

jazz manpower came on the intercommunication system,"Sir we didn't do anything. When the navigation bank building went mightiness dark, we opened the jury and rats came running out. How the Inferno did we get bum on the ship ?"

We all heard the throb of the locomotive wind down as they shut themselves down."All hands find those mother fucking rats and kill them ! Now ! security measure, egress persuader to everyone with finger. operate them all on stun, we don't want any accidents. I will pass on everyone that stuns a rat an extra rest cycle."

Turning to our tactical post,"Everest, take us to alarm status."She thumbed the alarm clock organization on her console table to on.

The yellow warning lights on the ship came to life story. The computing device voice could be heard all over the ship as she said,"alerting, all personnel are to asseverate Alert Statuuuuuuuussssssssss…"Then the warning ignitor went out and the span went dark.

***

I shook myself out of my revery as I entered the bridge. The first thing I noticed was the view screen was no foresightful blank. It now showed a great, dense asteroid champaign, and we were moving towards it slowly."Everest, reach me a situation report."

"We are drifting towards the asteroid field at approximately xv one hundred km per s. Estimated prison term to spellbind into the playing field is six hours."

"Bring our shield and targeting online. Get the machine gunner in their stations and tell them we may need to have a picayune target area practice."

"The artilleryman are reporting to stations, but the weapon system links are all still down, we have no throttle. The shell are on but we can not detect if they are working."

"So my day just got forged. We may or may not ingest shell, we don't have guns. And we have no ascendence 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 communicating in my electric chair I called down to engineering."Jazz handwriting give me some good news show. Please."

"Pig, I promise you I will accept the helm controller and inertial controls back on line of products in eight hours. My mass are working around the clock."

"That is commodity word, now I have some majuscule news for you. In six hours you will no longer throw to worry about repairing the ship. Those big rocks out there are going to stop the job those rats started. At the speed we are traveling one of those rocks is going to flex this ship into slag."

"Do you have sex a respectable saboteur service that may be in the area ?"

"We are sending the shuttles out."

I thumbed off the com venire."Babe, give me some good news."

Marijuana spoke without looking away from her console."We have an estimated impact time of seven hour and four minutes. Then we are going to be landing on a large asteroid dead ahead. We are caught in the solemnity well of that with child gas giant on the other side of meat of the field. I am running the calculations on the shuttles now."

"I asked for safe news, you could have told me you smuggled a bottleful of whiskey on board or something."

I stared at the opinion screen that I now wished was white again. My mind started to ramble back to the strikebreaker again.

***

We were hunting dirty dog ; they seemed to prompt about the ship with impunity chewing on anything that glowed. The illumine wires were natural targets."We need one of them alive so Buster can tell us why they are after the light wires."

Our group split up into pairs. I was teamed with Demoness, our plan was wide-eyed ; displace about the ship opening access jury. If anything ran out pull the induction and sandbag it. I noticed mountain had put on his ceremonial armor for the hunt. It had a thick codpiece for protection down there.

chattering over our helmet com was kept to a minimum. Demoness opened the first gore, it was to aliveness support. There was nothing. We moved to the elevation control panel. When I opened it there was an detonation of fur and teeth. Then there was incredible pain as I was hit by the gust from the inducer. damn I am gladiolus it was set to stun.

I woke up in the medical lab with a huge pair of breast hovering over my cheek."Hi, Melons,"I mumbled as I shook my caput to clear it."Did we at least manage to get one of the rats ?"

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

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

"We had to stop the dirty dog, I knew the arm was on stun and wouldn't hurt you."Demoness said with a mater of fact tone.

"melon's beloved, would you please hand me my inducer ; I want to show Demoness just how piffling they hurt."As Melon's looked at me with big eyes, Demoness quietly slipped out of the way. I reached over for the com panel next to the bed."fellow, assure me some thoroughly news."

"My retirement history is up fifty thousand."

"Don't worry, if you don't blockade the blabber you are not going to need a retirement report, now what about the bum ?"

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

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

"The only thing I know is they are attracted to the light wire because they glow on the like wavelength in ultra reddish blue as the flowers do. As to why they are attracted to them."

I jumped out of the bed and headed for engineering science. raft was in the mansion."Get every crack shot armed with rifles and meet me in engineering. We are going to have an old fashioned Meleagris gallopavo shoot."

mountain headed off to gather men and women. I went to technology."Jazz work force, get over here, I have an idea."

"Yes sir,"James said as he ran up."Sir we are really busy trying to fix the wrong. Can this wait ?"

"No. How long would it acquire to get a mountain of spare luminosity wire in the center of engineering and sequester it to the main generator ?"

"About twenty minutes."

"You have ten, I also want the main link from the generator to the residue of the ship set to disconnect on my command."

"You want us to switch to the backup ?"

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

"The lifts are no job the git chewed them up about fifteen hour ago. The verboten doors may be a problem. The main birdie bay doorway are stuck unfastened and the observation windowpane in the forward mapmaking lab is non-operational."

"Evacuate those expanse, tell everyone they have twenty minutes to stop up everything and get out. We are going to bait a trap for the rats."

"But sir, If we cut the main tycoon then the reckoner will go down. We will be completely defenseless."

"We are facing a superior enemy, in an unknown tactical situation. We are completely defenselessly now. If the rats continue at this rate we will have no ship in 12 hours. It is time to make a last viewpoint. The rats are attracted to the light wire so we will give them the entirely batch of glowing wires on the ship to come for. Now get them set up or I am going to cling you from the prow of the ship like a figurehead."

"Yes sir."

I moved to the upper balcony, as the others started to meet. I set people up in positions so we had full coverage of the engineering deck below. The down of wire was a substance of flaming anything that moved was a target."All right people there are sixteen of these dirty dog to defeat. I want everyone's weapon set to overkill. We can not yield for a I rat to get away this trap."

As I took my position as the last of the personnel office left the lower level. Then the light source went out. It was such a prospicient wait. But after almost an time of day the first rat came out of an admittance hatch and started moving toward the wires. He was hit by the beams of over 40 weapon. The niggling shit was zilch but a lump of charcoal.

It took about an hour for the lowlife to originate showing up. It took twenty bit for the last one to go down. I stood and hit the com panel. It was dead like everything else."Jazz script, lets get the arrangement rebooted and mending started."

***

I rose out of my woolgathering to see a large rock on the perspective screen door."Tactical, how far out is it and estimated clip to touch on ?"

"We are five level six seven million kilometers from the asteroid. Estimated impact time is one hr and three minutes."Mt. Everest answered.

"Reduce the overstatement to ten times."

"It is already at ten times, sir."

"Shit ! How big is that thing ?"

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

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

"Definitely, sir."

"How is the attempt to transfer our path with the shuttle going ?"

"Not commodity, sir, the attitude correction jets 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 screen. My heart sank. This was not exactly how I had envisioned ending my command. If we made it back alive we would get full award and retirement benefit as admirals. My mind drifted back to the day I had been informed of my choices.

***

"petty officer third class Phillip Irving Graves, reporting as say sir."I said as I walked into full admiral Tigrat's office. He looked up at me with a shit eating grin on his face. He motioned with his script for me to sit and be at ease.

"Phillip, I am at a red for what to do with you. If I press rush then everyone in the fleet is going to know what you did. If I don't press guardianship then you get off Scott give up and I can not let that materialize either."He looked at me with open hatred in his eyes.

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

The grin that cracked his aspect was one of pure evil."My thoughts exactly, so here is the slew. I am going to recommend you as the captain of the Ticonderoga. It is scheduled to vary at the end of the month. Then you are going to go deep. Your delegation will be two years transit out, then sixteen class exploring. When you return, you will have admiral's benefits."

"Sir, I am not married."I knew the criminal record, not s single ship had ever come back from going deep. nigh disappeared without a suggestion. He was consigning me to a destruction sentence. My own command weighed heavy on my intellect. I had always thought I could do it better than any of these braggart. Out there I would be the interpreter of bureau. I would be the only command strand. The buck would stop with me.

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

The smile he gave me had me thinking through the adult female I knew. I sure as Inferno would not let him decide. Then Millishia came to mind, she was one hell of a skill officer. Her career was gilded. Maybe I could get one over on the old ass in front of me yet."Do I get to choose my crew ?"

"You will be given a lean of volunteers for late servicing. You may prefer 30 dyad from it. The other 19 duo I will choose. I already have one of your engineer and doctors picked out. Plus a brace of security the great unwashed you will just love."

"Do rule 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 thing of beauty, long and silken with four railway locomotive nacelles under her dead body rig. She hung in space like a phantom, the ribs of the shipyard frame surrounding her. The recollective narrow body looked like an pointer with atmospheric stabilizer on the back end half. The broad school principal of the pointer was where the command decks sat. The slightly wide-eyed organic structure was the gang area. Under the chief consistency hung engineering science and checkup. She was designed to cut through space like a weapon. She was one of the sexiest thing I had ever seen. I was supposed to describe aboard and select my crew via interviews.

A few of my crew was already onboard, my technologist, James River Mitchell Penzo, and his wife, Leafa Tiski Mikia-Penzo were two of them. I had read their files, they were dissolver addicts. She was also a Liskian, they were reputed to be a yobo lot.

I had looked at the files of over a thousand volunteer brace, I had to break up thirty. I had discovered something profound. Most citizenry that wanted to go deep were nut cases. These were no exception. The volunteer ran the ploy from mad scientist to psycho killers. I was at a release for anyone I trusted on a farseeing flight let alone wanted there.

I spent the next calendar week interviewing aspirer ; it was the heavily week of my life. If it had not been for Millishia, I probably would make begged the admiral to court mobilize me. The future three days were spend choosing my crew and filing their new social station. One thing nice about being a captain of a deep ship, rank onboard your ship was your choice. You set the chain of command and the duty roster. The captain was the first finally and only line of merchandise of command once you left the blank port.

quartet days later the mooring line lines fell away from the ship. My new helmsman only managed to hit the dry dock once on the way out. I now had an untested crew, a new ship with all the germ inherent and two years to move around them into a functioning crew before we made our first planet fall.

***

Again I pulled myself out of my memories, that rock was a great deal bigger. The countdown on the silver screen said thirty-one minutes. My mind started flying through the possibilities. I had to come up with an solvent. I would not lose my ship and bidding after our first planet fall.

A plan came to me. It would take some fancy flying. I hit the com unit in my death chair."wind hired man, Prepare to disconnect all power on my command. Demoness, I need your piloting acquirement, you have shuttle two, I have shuttle one, we launch in five."

Jazz custody came on the com unit,"Captain we have to have power to do fix, if you make me cut it off again it will film an minute to completely restart the system."

"I know, James II, if what I have planned works I will buy you the meter 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 major planet surrender. Do me a favor, Jazz."

"What, sir ?"

"return tutelage of my wife."I thumbed off the console and left the bridgework before anyone could ask any questions. I had a plan ; if it worked I would write 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 whole between the two shuttles to living."Demoness, I am going to fly this ship into direct contact with the body of the Fort Ticonderoga. Then I am going to throw idle words Hands cut all power. That should stop the pusher from firing. Once that is set I am going to fuel up the locomotive engine in the shuttle and open her the gas. If this works I will deflect the ship by enough to turn tail the asteroid field."

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

"That is where you come in. I am going to expel, I need you to scoop me up fast and get me make. Get my body back for a decent funeral."

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

"I don't have time to put a suit of clothes on ; if this is going to work I have to do it now."I shut off the com channel. It took me less than a minute to position my birdie. I contacted malarkey hands,"Cut the power now !"Then I put the engine king to full and locked the accelerator pedal. The on circuit card computer started telling me I was going to die.

"Imminent railway locomotive overload in 20 irregular. Imminent engine overload in nineteen seconds. Imminent engine overburden in eighteen seconds."I dove for the ascendency for the projection organisation. I let all of the air out of my lungs and pulled the hold."system of rules detects non suited force, expulsion system disabled."

screw ! I pulled my side arm and shot the console table. 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 s later and the world went dark. My in conclusion intellection was,"piece of tail, that hurts."

***

"Captain Graves, I do not expect you to come back from this. I expect you to die a bloody and horrible death."Admiral Tigrat said as I was in my last interview before launch."Do not disappoint me."

"Respectfully sir, my entire crew will be at your one hundredth natal day company. There I will leave your wife and girl a buss right in battlefront of you. How did you ever wield to get a ring on the finger of that woman ? She has to be at least forty years unseasoned than you."

***

My head was pounding out a calendar method that sounded like a hangover."Where ?"I managed to ask around the pain in the ass in my head.

"Med lab,"the huge couplet of chest above me said quietly.

"How ?"

"Liskians are elusive than homo, she had the shuttle decompressed and waiting on your forcing out. Once you flew onboard she put up the pinch sphere and re-pressurized. You may have got a few aching and strain plus blurred imaginativeness for a few days, but you will be ok soon."

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

"The ship is out of danger and flying under its own power again, chieftain. You got us bring in of the asteroids and bought him the clock time to fix the ship. By the sentence I let you out of here we will be fully functional again."

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

"Jazz flushed the sleep of the solvent out the airlock. He said any man that would do what you did to economise the ship deserves a sober car-mechanic. ”