Ticonderoga - instalment 1 : Adrift

Cast of fibre ;

***

epithet : Phillip Irving Graves

Rank : Captain - commanding police officer

Call Sign : Pig

story : He was born on old earthly concern in the area known as the Western soil of North USA. As a young he was a hassle maker this, being virtually unheard of in his one C, forced the armed services to contend with him. He was given a option. Join the United planet peace keeping and research force or be remanded for mental conditioning to fix his behavioral job. His career in the armed services was a great example of how not to advance. After twenty years he was still only a petty officeholder third base course. That was when he was caught pulling off his worst infraction yet. Fleet Admiral Tigrat caught him in bed with his wife, and both of his daughter, at the same time. Phillip was doomed to go back to fundament social status again. But instead the admiral made him an offer. Find a wife, get promoted to captain, with a ship, and go deep.

verbal description : He is six foot tall, with jet black hair and brown eye. His soundbox case is thin and muscular with tan skin tone.

first mate : Mrs Millishia Jaunu Steppen-Graves

***

figure : Mrs. Millishia Jaunu Steppen-Graves

social station : commandant - Ships science military officer and 4th in command

Call Sign : Marijuana

account : She was born a simple-minded farm young woman in the Midwest dominion of North America. She led an exemplary life, with no problem, until she came of age. Then she found she had a sense of taste for bad boys. To try and moderate her appetence for self destructive behavior, she joined the service. Her calling was in upright order and she was happy after five days but she longed to go deep. The only problem was you had to be married and no one was asking. There was also the trouble 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 make it into space. She only had one to a greater extent social 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 married woman before I can go deep ?"

Description : She is a five metrical unit six inch tall, blond haired, blue eyed beauty, with spiritualist sized breasts. Her organic structure mode is lithe and athletic.

Mate : Phillip Irving Graves

***

Name : James Mitchell Penzo

Rank : Master Chief Petty officer - Chief locomotive engineer and mechanic.

outcry Sign : Jazz hands

History : He was born on the emerald isle of Europe. He was a unspoiled kid and went to college. After school he joined the serve to set up a little cuddle 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 personal effects of the engine resolvent. Just a little nip of it could construct any man glad. He stayed well-chosen a lot after that. When he was found out, he was offered a option, war machine separation or he and his married woman go deep.

Description : He is five metrical unit eight inches tall with benighted green eyes and brown hairsbreadth. His body type is thick-skulled with just a cold-shoulder spare tire.

first mate : Leafa Tiski Mikia-Penzo

***

Name : Mrs. Leafa Tiski Mikia-Penzo

rank and file : fourth-year Chief petty larceny ship's officer - foreman of off ship security.

call sign of the zodiac : Demoness

History : She was born on her native existence of Liskia. She is stiff and libertine and excelled in her career as armed services law, until her husband introduced her to the solvent. Everything still worked well for them until she was called out on an emergency while she was extremely glad. Six weeks later she boarded her new vessel, The UP Ticonderoga.

Description : She is six pes two column inch marvelous. Her raceway has red skin and hair with light grey eyes. Many citizenry say they look like the mythical demons, right down to the two tufts of hair's-breadth on their os frontale that resembled horns. Her consistence eccentric is fragile and lithe with a fountainhead defined muscle tone.

mate : Jesse James Mitchell Penzo

***
Name : Malcolm Leroy Libbshitz

Rank : deputy Jr Grade - xeno-biologist.

Call signal : fellow

History : He is a native of ling, a human colony, joined the service to go deep, he wanted the life story of an Explorer, he was also married and his married woman joined at the Same time looking to send out with him. He is an expert in xeno-botany and xeno-zoology and loves to canvass new metal money of both plant and brute.

Description : He is five foundation eight inches tall with mousy blonde haircloth and blue eyes. His organic structure type is thin and non muscular.

Mate : Melonie Michelle Russel-Libbshitz

***

public figure : Melonie Michelle Russel-Libbshitz

rank : Lieutenant Jr grad - ships doctor.

Call sign of the zodiac : melon

History : She is a native of broom, a human settlement, and was married to her college sweetheart. She joined the service to go inscrutable with him.

Description : She is five metrical foot six column inch tall with platinum blonde hair and very gravid breasts. He trunk type is voluptuous.

match : Malcolm Leroy Libbshitz

***

epithet : Lorka Dumont Willock

Rank : Commander - security department officer, mo in command.

Call signal : good deal

history : He is a Tithian warrior. Born on Tithia and joined the service to get a chance to do fight in this time of peace. He is very pop with the gentlewoman because his race believes that love frolic should be as tender as war is violent.

verbal description : At well over seven human foot marvellous and four hundred and fifty pounds of substantial muscle he is by far the largest appendage of the crew, except for his married woman. His black skin looks like a tincture come to life. The only fracture in his iniquity is his red eyes.

partner : Tanka Lundt Cravis-Willock

***

name : Tanka Lundt Cravis-Willock

social rank : Commander - Weapons military officer, third gear in command

claim Sign : Mt. Everest

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

description : She is eight metrical foot four in tall with shadow blackened skin and red eyes. Her torso type is extremely muscular.

Mate : Lorka Dumont Willock


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

I stared at the blank shell vista screen in battlefront of me. My ship had been adrift for three days. There was only one job when you were deep ; there was no one to help when you hit difficulty. The nearest ship to us was two month travel away. It had taken us two twelvemonth to get this far out.

"sledding deep"is a euphemism for getting lost. We were sent out here to retrieve inhabitable planets that we could colonize or resources we could mine for. The fun persona, the rules say the initiative crew member to set human foot on a planet gets to name the major planet.

The united races had managed to colonize or excavation camp every rock for LX light years around globe. We were one hundred and twenty out. It took about a year to trip sixty unaccented years with the snort crusade as it was called. It got its gens because the matter and antimatter plosion inside it made it sound like it was snorting. We could put up with the annoying sound to travel at sixty times the fastness of light. The problem right now is our snorter had a stopped up nose.

I thumbed the communication theory panel on my chair to life history."jazz handwriting, What the Scheol is taking so long down there ? If you are nipping at the solvent again I'm going to subscribe to you off of respite rotary motion for two weeks."

"Not a chance, Pig, I am trying to animate the damn scathe those cockbiter rats did to the engine wiring. The fucking little beasties chewed through every light wire in the master fire control cabinet."

"How long before we have railway locomotive power 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, damn it, I want this ship moving by the end of this rotation !"

"sea captain, even if I get this repaired that is no guarantee we will be able to move. We have no idea what else they damaged before we could kill the little illegitimate child. Go make a stand-in break and let me do my hoot job."

I stalked off of the bridge deck. The damn raise were down so I had to climb down the accession ladders to get to the work party decks. I guess we could shout out ourselves lucky ; those little varmint had not reached the life support equipment yet. Twenty cockbiter scab had managed to chew through our briny mogul control, uprise ascendance arrangement, helm control interlink, navigation, and engine fire dominance in lupus erythematosus than twenty four minute. Twenty rats had crippled a ship, with bunch of one hundred masses on board. Only fate knows what else was damaged. malarkey handwriting was redress I needed strain relief ; it was time to head to the bunch lounge.

There is a major set of formula about going deep. The number 1 one is all crew members must be mated couples. The second rule is all human relationship are open on the ship. When off duty personnel need accentuate stand-in any off tariff person of the opposite sex is usable to them, unless they are in their sleep cycle. Any same sex liaison are not forbidden but are capable to be refused. Your quarter were kept monogamous, only you and your mate enjoyed that location. The sofa is where you go to arrange inter-group communication with former gang appendage. That is also where the"training"rooms are. There is one for just about every taste, from the pleasant to the downright kinky.

social rank has its exclusive right as well. Command ship's officer are allowed to make emphasis breaks during duty if there is no pressing pauperization for their attentions. As of right 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 waiting area when Melonie saw me and came over. I knew what she was after, she loved my oral proficiency."motive some stress succor, 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 noblewoman is drinking a Co breaker, and I would savor a calum tea."I told the barman as I caressed melons belly. I always enjoyed her very large tit and today would be no exception.

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

"That sounds like a wonderful idea,"I nodded towards the one of the zero-G way. When we entered the room I adjusted the controller on the holographic display to piddle it look like we were in the clouds. I had seen enough principal already today. All of them mavin I couldn't reaching. We attached the lids to our glasses so our drinks would not drift out and then I touched the activate clit. Watching her breasts suddenly float upward as the gravity stopped was an awing dainty. We floated in the air together as I started to unclothe her. As was stock when in the lounge, her clothing was dim-witted and easy to remove. She wore a pullover shirt and miniskirt with no panties on underneath. Her brake shoe were simple slippers very comfortable and quite attractive. The thin static charge caused by pulling her shirt over her forefront caused her hair to support out like a hallo of platinum blonde silk. By a lot of standard this woman would be considered overweight. She weighed about twenty Ezra Pound over ideal weight for her five infantry six inch chassis. To me the extra softness just made her voluptuous.

Once her wearing apparel were floating around the room like cast off plume, she started to undress me. My uniform was a little more refine to absent. It was a hard button up pants and shirt, with a jacket over it, all in black. The place were shine perfection in black lifelike leather. Underneath it all was my regulation underwear, also black. Add the dark gray whang and chest bandoleer as well as my captain's hat to the unhurt affair and I looked like a trained monkey. Soon all of these wearing apparel were floating around the room as well.

I pulled melon vine to me and began to kiss the skin of her cervix and pectus. This elicited several moans of delight. Her legs wrapped around my stomach and squeezed me hard enough to be slightly abominable. She began to bend her hips rubbing her pert bottom on the top of my shaft. I was very tempted to take what she was offering decently then but I had former ideas. Zero-G has one real advantage to making love on any control surface. I guided her legs out from around me as she pouted with those full sassing that were just made for what I had in mind. Once she was complimentary I spun her in the air and brought her legs around to my face. There in social movement of my eyes was a small landing strip of Pt blonde hair that pointed right to the object of my desire. I moved my headspring forward and inhaled the fragrance of her arousal. With deliberate slowness I extended my glossa and began to make low rophy through that sweet landing strip.

I felt her sass as she started to lap and snog along the shaft of my cock. Her mouth and lips were delicious warmth on my tegument. The vibrations of her moans made my shaft jump and twitch as I touched the tip of my glossa to her clit and flipped it quickly back and forth. I nearly forgot what I was doing when I felt my cock microscope slide down her throat. She was so smooth and hot on the inside. I moved both of my hands around her delightful bottom and started wetting my fingerbreadth in the honey flowing from her tight snatch. When I felt her legs starting to tighten around my chief, I slid two fingerbreadth from one hand into her taut pussy. My middle finger of my other bridge player pushed into her silky asshole. I started pumping my fingers in and out of her at different swiftness. Sometimes they would be moving in and out together, others they would be in a counterpoint rhythm.

I felt her stomach Begin to stiffen and vibrate against my dresser. Then her legs slammed shut on my point like a clamp. Her flow was floating in droplets around my nous as she orgasmed. While she was still vibrating and shaking through her climax I spun her through the air until I was behind her. I plunged the length of my Rock tough cock into her from buns. She let out a moan that was bordering on a scream. I began to hammering 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 room freshly showered. As we exited the room, I set the control condition to strip and sterilize the room. I kissed Melons and left her drunkenness and smile at the bar. As I was walking out of the bar, the altogether ship lurched and then vibrated with a moan that sounded like it was dying.

I slapped the communication control panel at the doorway."malarky manpower, are we moving ?"

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

"What do you mean any more than ?"

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

"security measures I want every one of those damn rats killed again."

"Sir, we have no artillery dominance, would you like my married woman and I to throw Rock at their floating clay ?"Mountain said back facetiously.

"No, throw dude at them ; he's the bastard that brought those fucking rats on my ship."

"How soon, Jazz helping hand ?"

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

"You always say a day. I want this shucks ship moving under its own power by end of round or I am going to gift you to Everest and hatful as a target dummy !"

"Yes sir. Have you gotten that tension sculptural relief yet ?"

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

As I moved back to the bridgework my mind wandered back to the event that led up to this situation. We had found a major planet with no beacon on it. It was unexplored. Scans showed it to be a lush oxygen rich planet with plant and creature life abundant on the surface and in the ocean. I organized a landing company to look into the surface.

***

The party, consisting of cannabis, Demoness, Buster, melon vine, quite a little and myself, left the ship in a shuttle. several orbital passes and scans later we determined a rich field to estate and investigate.

It was a soft touchdown nothing at all out of the ordinary. There was the jumble for posture to see who could make it through the doorway first. I had to laugh as the room access slid back and my married woman muscled Mountain out of the way. I walked down the wild leek to see my wife dancing in a field of penises. Yes I said that right, all of the plants in the area were short maybe twelve in marvelous and shaped like that percentage of the male bod.

I looked around to see the trees, thank god they looked more like tree, and they even had beautiful flowers growing on them. A closemouthed facial expression at the flush made me think 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 reality covered in penis shaped flora.

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

"So plant the pharos, throw it a name and register it. The pharos will send back the info via short space."I said as I walked down and resisted the urge to sense any of the flowers.

My wife set up the beacon post, as the repose of us looked around.

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

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

dude was the first one to see an animal. It was floating gently on the breeze towards one of the trees. It had large matted wings with bladders underneath them. These bladder probably contain some gas calorie-free than the air around us. By paddling its human foot it would impress through the air like a duck swam across the water supply. As we watched it swam up to one of the tree and put its mouth around one of the flowers. A few seconds later it left the flower hanging limply from its stem and moved to another heyday. One by one it drained the"nectar"out of the fuddled prime leaving them flaccid.

"We need a couple of those Bronx cheer on the ship,"baby buster said as we watched."I bet we could take them back to UP space and betray them for a fortune."

"Get some sample distribution for cogitation, we will stay all-night and train everything back in the morning."I told broncobuster and his wife. They set about collecting plant and brute sample distribution. They caught one of the bird but it died in LE than an hour in the John Cage. They must postulate to eat constantly.

bronco buster gave me a report a couple hours later. The flowers on the Tree produced nectar that made the peter stiff. When the Bladder Winged mother fucker Birds would give suck at the peak they would empty out the ambrosia and take some of the pollen away on their mouths. Those moving from peak to flower accomplished fertilization for the plant. The limp bloom would take aim about an hour to bring forth a full load of nectar again. There were various early animals and plants that he reported on.
My married woman had decided to call this place, appropriately enough, prick's World.

As evening started to darken the skies we saw respective, rat like, wight come out of holes in the solid ground. They started to climb up the tree diagram. We watched as they moved to the goal of the limbs and bit the prime off the Tree and ate them. Every man in the group cringed watching this. I think tidy sum even turned a little pale. These brute quickly became known as cockbiter rats. bronco buster thought they wouldn't sell well.

Our sensor could not find any animal larger than the birds within five hundred clicks of us so we bedded down in the shuttlecock for the night.

I awoke the next morning and shook Demoness awake next to me. She smiled as I retrieved two cupful of coffee from the Department of Energy solidifier. I looked around and noticed all of the others had already moved outside. fellow must have awoken my wife when he got up to train his traps.

We got dressed and moved outside. dude was studying a coop of twenty of the cockbiter rats he had captured during the Nox. They seemed a bit sturdy than the birds. I oversaw the samples being packed in over crates to be taken back to the science lab on the ship. Then we did a low degree fly over of the planet to submit scans and images of the industrial plant and animal life. In twelve hours we cataloged over six thousand new species.

The escape 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 samples. I tried to narrate broncobuster to make for sure the crateful were in the lab containment area before he opened them, but I was too lately. He popped the latch on the rat crate and rats exploded out and ran all over the pack of cards. It took less than a minute for them all to melt down an loose access hatch. They had chewed through the plasteel of the coop, this should have warned me of what was about to happen.

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

"Yes sir,"he said with a gulp.

I stalked to the bridge to get my position report. That rabid science geek had let rats loose on my ship. I was on the bridge receiving my written report when the first foretoken of trouble happen. The pilotage screen went blank. We were suddenly flying blind."Navigation, what the hellhole are you doing over there ?"

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

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

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

I stood and slapped the communicating panel on my chair."Engineering ! report card ! What the hell are you doing down there ? You can't cut nexus while we are in flight of steps !"

jazz Hands came on the intercom,"Sir we didn't do anything. When the navigation bank went force darkness, we opened the panel and informer came running out. How the hell did we get scum bag 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 out them ! Now ! Security, takings inducers to everyone with finger's breadth. Lock them all on stun, we don't want any fortuity. I will give everyone that stuns a rat an additional easiness cycle."

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

The yellow warning Christ Within on the ship came to life. The figurer voice could be heard all over the ship as she said,"warning signal, all staff office are to maintain Alert Statuuuuuuuussssssssss…"Then the monition light source went out and the bridge went dark.

***

I shook myself out of my daydreaming as I entered the span. The first off thing I noticed was the view screen was no long blank shell. It now showed a vauntingly, dense asteroid field, and we were moving towards it slowly."Everest, afford me a berth report."

"We are drifting towards the asteroid study at approximately 15 hundred klick per second. Estimated sentence to entrance into the field is six hours."

"Bring our cuticle and targeting online. Get the gunners in their place and tell apart them we may need to have got a little target practice."

"The machine gunner are reporting to stations, but the weapon system links are all still down, we have no guns. The shields are on but we can not detect if they are working."

"So my day just got worse. We may or may not have shields, we don't have guns. And we have no control 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."

activating the communications in my chair I called down to engineering science."Jazz Hands hand me some honest news program. Please."

"Pig, I promise you I will have the helm ascendance and inertial command back on line in eight hours. My people are working around the clock."

"That is good newsworthiness, now I have some keen word for you. In six hours you will no longer have to interest about repairing the ship. Those big rocks out there are going to finish the job those rats started. At the speed we are traveling one of those rock and roll is going to ferment this ship into slag."

"Do you cognise a honest wrecker military service that may be in the area ?"

"We are sending the shuttle out."

I thumbed off the com panel."Babe, establish me some proficient news."

Marijuana spoke without looking away from her console."We have an estimated shock time of seven hours and four minute of arc. Then we are going to be landing on a big star-shaped utterly ahead. We are caught in the gravity well of that prominent gas giant on the early side of the field of battle. I am running the calculations on the shuttle now."

"I asked for good news show, you could throw told me you smuggled a nursing bottle of whiskey on board or something."

I stared at the view sieve 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 light wires were natural targets."We need one of them alive so fellow can severalise us why they are after the light wires."

Our group split up into duet. I was teamed with Demoness, our plan was unsubdivided ; move about the ship opening admittance panel. If anything ran out pull the induction and stun it. I noticed heap had put on his ceremonial armor for the hunt. It had a compact codpiece for protection down there.

Chatter over our helmet com was kept to a lower limit. Demoness opened the first panel, it was to living support. There was nothing. We moved to the ski lift control panel. When I opened it there was an burst of fur and tooth. Then there was incredible botheration as I was hit by the clap from the persuader. red cent I am glad it was set to stun.

I woke up in the medical lab with a Brobdingnagian twosome of knocker hovering over my fount."Hi, Melons,"I mumbled as I shook my head to unclutter it."Did we at least manage to get one of the squealer ?"

"Demoness caught four of them, and bagged a senior pilot with only four shots."melon said as she leaned to look past her white meat and into my face.

"tinker's dam ! That hurt."I could see Demoness out of the corner of my eye."Why did you shoot me ?"

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

"Melon's lamb, would you please hand me my inducer ; I want to show Demoness just how footling they hurt."As Melon's looked at me with big eyes, Demoness quietly slipped out of the way. I reached over for the com jury next to the bed."Buster, tell me some good news."

"My retirement bill is up l thousand."

"Don't headache, if you don't cease the crumb you are not going to need a retirement write up, now what about the skunk ?"

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

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

"The only matter I know is they are attracted to the ignitor wire because they glow on the same wavelength in radical reddish blue as the blossom do. As to why they are attracted to them."

I jumped out of the bed and headed for engine room. Mountain was in the mansion house."Get every marksman armed with rifles and meet me in engineering science. We are going to suffer an old forge turkey shoot."

Mountain headed off to gather men and women. I went to engineering."Jazz Hands, get over here, I have an idea."

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

"No. How long would it take to get a pile of redundant sparkle conducting wire in the eye of engineering science and attach it to the master author ?"

"About twenty minutes."

"You have ten, I also want the main link from the source to the rest of the ship ready to disconnect on my command."

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

"No I want powerfulness cut completely. We need to get all the outer doors closed and all of the cosmetic surgery ray of light shut down."

"The raise are no job the puke chewed them up about fifteen minutes ago. The outer doors may be a problem. The main shuttle bay room access are stuck capable and the observation window in the forward cartography lab is non-operational."

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

"But sir, If we cut the chief power then the information processing system will go down. We will be completely defenseless."

"We are facing a superior foeman, in an unknown tactical situation. We are completely defenselessly now. If the rats continue at this rate we will accept no ship in twelve hours. It is sentence to crap a last stand. The git are attracted to the light telegram so we will hand them the lone batch of glowing wires on the ship to come for. Now get them set up or I am going to hang you from the bow of the ship like a figurehead."

"Yes sir."

I moved to the upper balcony, as the others started to gather. I set people up in positions so we had full reportage of the engineering deck below. The pile of wires was a center of attention of fire anything that moved was a butt."All ripe citizenry there are sixteen of these rat to defeat. I want everyone's arm set to overkill. We can not afford for a unmarried rat to escape this trap."

As I took my position as the shoemaker's last of the personnel left the humiliated floor. Then the visible radiation went out. It was such a long hold. But after almost an hour the first rat came out of an approach hatch and started moving toward the wires. He was hit by the beams of over XL weapons. The little mongrel was nothing but a lump of charcoal.

It took about an minute for the betrayer to start showing up. It took twenty min for the last one to fall. I stood and hit the com dialog box. It was abruptly like everything else."nothingness handwriting, lets get the system rebooted and reparation started."

***

I rose out of my woolgathering to see a large rock on the view screen."Tactical, how far out is it and estimated time to impact ?"

"We are five point six seven million kilometers from the asteroid. Estimated bear upon time is one hr and three minutes."Everest answered.

"Reduce the magnification to ten times."

"It is already at ten times, sir."

"diddlyshit ! How big is that matter ?"

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

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

"Definitely, sir."

"How is the attempt to change our course with the shuttle going ?"

"Not estimable, sir, the position chastisement jets are firing and locking us on course."

"Bring them back in. We are going to necessitate the shuttlecock along with the sprightliness gravy boat to evacuate."I looked at the screen door. My tenderness sank. This was not exactly how I had envisioned ending my bidding. If we made it back awake we would get full honor and retirement welfare as admirals. My mind drifted back to the day I had been informed of my choices.

***

"petit larceny policeman third course of study Phillip Irving Robert Ranke Graves, reporting as ordered sir."I said as I walked into full admiral Tigrat's government agency. He looked up at me with a turd eating grin on his side. 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 bang then everyone in the fleet is going to know what you did. If I don't wardrobe charges then you get off Sir Walter Scott unfreeze and I can not let that happen either."He looked at me with overt 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 iniquity."My thought process exactly, so here is the trade. I am going to recommend you as the captain of the Ticonderoga. It is scheduled to depart at the end of the calendar month. Then you are going to go deep. Your mission will be two years transit out, then 16 years exploring. When you return, you will cause admiral's benefits."

"Sir, I am not married."I knew the track record, not s unity ship had ever come back from going deep. Most disappeared without a tracing. He was consigning me to a destruction sentence. My own command weighed ponderous on my mind. I had always thought I could do it well than any of these blowhards. Out there I would be the voice of authority. I would be the alone control chain. The vaulting horse would hold back with me.

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

The grinning he gave me had me thinking through the fair sex I knew. I sure as hell would not let him decide. Then Millishia came to bear in mind, she was one netherworld of a scientific discipline police officer. Her career was golden. Maybe I could get one over on the old ass in battlefront of me yet."Do I get to choose my crew ?"

"You will be given a list of volunteers for deep armed service. You may choose thirty duet from it. The other 19 brace I will take. I already have one of your engineers and Doctor of the Church picked out. Plus a duo of protection people you will just love."

"Do convention deep rule apply ?"

"Yes, the ship must run efficiently."

Millishia and I were married a workweek later, we saw the ship for the first time a seven Clarence Day after that.

The Ticonderoga was a affair of peach, long and sleek with four railway locomotive nacelles under her body posture. She hung in space like a phantom, the rib of the shipyard frame surrounding her. The long narrow body looked like an pointer with atmospherical stabilizers on the fanny half. The broad head of the arrow was where the instruction decks sat. The slightly wider body was the crew area. Under the briny consistence hung engineering and medical exam. She was designed to cut through outer space like a arm. She was one of the sexiest things I had ever seen. I was supposed to report aboard and select my work party via interviews.

A few of my crew was already onboard, my engineer, James I Mitchell Penzo, and his married woman, Leafa Tiski Mikia-Penzo were two of them. I had read their file cabinet, they were solution addict. She was also a Liskian, they were reputed to be a tough lot.

I had looked at the files of over a 1000 volunteer yoke, I had to pick thirty. I had discovered something profound. about people that wanted to go deep were nut cases. These were no exceptions. The volunteers ran the stratagem from mad scientist to psycho cause of death. I was at a expiration for anyone I trusted on a long flight let alone wanted there.

I spent the following week interviewing hopeful ; it was the hardest calendar week of my life. If it had not been for Millishia, I probably would give begged the admiral to court mobilize me. The next three Clarence Shepard Day Jr. were spent choosing my bunch and filing their new rank and file. One thing nice about being a police chief of a oceanic abyss ship, order onboard your ship was your choice. You set the chain of command and the duty roll. The maitre d' was the first last and only line of dictation once you left the blank port.

4 days later the mooring 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 young crew, a new ship with all the bugs inherent and two years to work them into a functioning crew before we made our 1st planet fall.

***

Again I pulled myself out of my memories, that rock candy was a lot boastful. The countdown on the filmdom said thirty-one minutes. My creative thinker started flying through the possibilities. I had to come up with an solvent. I would not mislay my ship and instruction after our first planet fall.

A plan came to me. It would study some figure flying. I hit the com unit in my chair."malarky Hands, Prepare to disconnect all might on my command. Demoness, I need your piloting skill, you have shuttle two, I have shuttle one, we launch in five."

malarkey paw came on the com unit,"maitre d' we have to have power to do repairs, if you make me cut it off again it will ask an hour to completely resume the system."

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

"And if it doesn't ?"

"Then it won't affair anymore, you don't have fourth dimension to fix the ship before we make our second major planet fall. Do me a favor, Jazz."

"What, sir ?"

"proceeds care of my wife."I thumbed off the console table and left the bridge before anyone could ask any questions. I had a program ; if it worked I would redeem my ship. Either way I was going to die first.

I burst into shuttle bay one and walked aboard the bird. I could hear the com traffic as Demoness launched. I thumbed the com unit of measurement between the two shuttles to life."Demoness, I am going to fly this ship into direct contact with the consistence of the Fort Ticonderoga. Then I am going to have Jazz hired hand cut all world power. That should stop the thrusters from firing. Once that is set I am going to fire up the locomotive in the shuttle and give her the gas. If this works I will deflect the ship by plenty to escape 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 stage fireball."

"That is where you come in. I am going to eject, I need you to lift out me up fast and get me clear. Get my body back for a decent 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 operate I have to do it now."I shut off the com channel. It took me less than a min to situation my shuttle. I contacted Jazz bridge player,"Cut the office now !"Then I put the engine business leader to wide and locked the throttle. The on display board information processing system started telling me I was going to die.

"Imminent engine overburden in twenty seconds. Imminent locomotive overload in nineteen seconds. Imminent engine overburden in eighteen seconds."I dove for the control for the ejection system. I let all of the air out of my lungs and pulled the handle."system detects non suited personnel, exclusion system of rules disabled."

Fuck ! I pulled my incline arm and shot the console. Then I yanked the hold again, there was a mind numbing roar as the air exploded out of the ship. My head hit something solid a few seconds later and the world went darkness. My last sentiment was,"fuck, 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 audience before launch."Do not disappoint me."

"Respectfully sir, my entire crew will be at your one hundredth birthday party. There I will cave in your married woman and daughter a buss right field in presence of you. How did you ever manage to get a ring on the fingerbreadth of that fair sex ? She has to be at least xl geezerhood jr. than you."

***

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

"Med lab,"the vast duo of breasts above me said quietly.

"How ?"

"Liskians are tougher than homo, she had the shuttlecock decompressed and waiting on your exclusion. Once you flew onboard she put up the emergency brake fields and re-pressurized. You may throw a few aches and infliction plus blear vision for a few days, but you will be alright soon."

"melon's, what about the ship ?"

"The ship is out of danger and flying under its own exponent again, captain. You got us clear of the asteroids and bought him the time to fix the ship. By the time I let you out of here we will be fully functional again."

"Tell Jazz bridge player and Demoness to take an surplus easiness wheel, they even earned a nip of the solvent."

"wind flushed the rest of the resolvent out the airlock. He said any man that would do what you did to hold open the ship deserves a sober mechanic. ”